The midnight's children were involved in war the very next morning. The `soldier of peace' in his prayer meetings dwelt on the `war situation' and informed his audiences the topography of the war zone, logistics and other difficulties faced by jawans and strategic goals of the invaders. He began with the issue of `intelligence failure'. In his prayer meeting on October 29,1947, he said, ``Today I wish to talk about what is happening in Kashmir. It is an astounding story. It happened three days ago. Nobody knew anything about it, even I did not know'.

Endorsing the decision of the Indian Govt to send armed reinforcements by air to drive away the infiltrators, Gandhiji said, ``I do not believe in armed fighting but I must know what it is. On the one hand there are 1,000 or at the most 1,500 Indian soldiersand on the other a large number of infiltrators''. Mahatma told the Indian jawans, ``To fight to the end and die fighting. The job of armed soldiers is to march ahead and repel the enemy.'' He urged the people to emulate the example set by Mir Maqbool Shervani, a National Conference leader. He narrated the story of Maqbool in the prayer meeting on November 19, 1947. Maqbool was captured by intruders in Baramulla and tortured. He refused to follow the dictates of the intruders and told them firmly, ``Sheikh Abdullah is the head of the Kashmir Government and the Army had already reached Srinagar and, before long, would repel the assailants''. Tribesmen were enraged and they riddled Maqbool's body with 14 bullets. They cut his nose and disfigured his face. But within 48 hours of this ruthless murder, Maqbool's prophecy came true.