They died fighting someone else's war, only families remember them

They died fighting someone else's war, only families remember them
KOTA NEELIMA

NEW DELHI, MAY 14: "I again request you not to worry about me. Nothing will happen to me. I am not the only one in this situation," wrote Major Dr Ashwani Kanva on October 31, three day before he was shot dead by LTTE snipers in Jaffna.

The words, which remained for 13 years on yellowing paper, are coming alive again as the Indian Government faces pressure to react to yet another crisis in Sri Lanka.

Kanva was a doctor with the 93 Field Artillery Regiment which was sent to Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) for Operation Pawan of the Indian Army in 1987.

A day before he died on November 3, he wrote again to his parents -- retired principal Amolak Singh Kanwa and Subhash Kumari -- in Paschim Vihar, New Delhi. The letter was short but warm. "Getting leave is not very sure. But I request you not to expect me before the fourth week of November or in December," he wrote. He was killed the next day as he saved the life of the man with whom he shared the tent in Jaffna, Major Gurpreet Singh.

"We did not believe that he was dead," says his mother, her brown eyes clouded with memories. Her son was 29 when he died.

``But then when we received the box with his body. They kept it right here,'' she points to the carpet in the living room. She says: ``Strangely, as everyone noticed, there was a smile on his face.''

In contrast to the Kargil operation when every soldier's body was sent back home, Major Kanva's was one of the two bodies that were returned to their families from Sri Lanka. India lost about 1, 200 soldiers in the operation which began in October 1987 and ended unsuccessfully in March 1990.

This followed the Indo-Sri Lankan accord which was signed in July 1987 by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan president J.R. Jayawardene. The Indian army was sent in to implement the peace accord.

Away from the media glare and patriotic hype, the families of the IPKF martyrs who died fighting someone else's war struggled and suffered in silence.

They Indian soldiers did not know what to expect on field, they were not allowed to use long-range artillery and had to face guerrilla warfare.

Kanva was shot thrice. ``He was waiting in his tent to take care of the wounded. But the tent was empty, there was no jawan left to bring in the wounded. And then my son saw that his partner Gupreet Singh was wounded. So he grabbed the medical kit and rushed to the field to take care of him,'' says Amolak Kanva, his father.

``The LTTE snipers were firing indiscriminately from atop coconut trees. There were no rules, no Geneva Convention, no fairplay. They shot thrice at a doctor,'' he says.

The Kanvas live in a shrine to their dead son. His photographs line the walls, a statue is in a corner. They have been through a period of anger, when his father refused to go to accept the Vishist Seva Medal for his son's sacrifice. Now they are alone.

``And you say, we may commit the mistake again, we will send the troops again to Lanka. They have all forgotten, but we have not. We cannot,'' he says. ``Can we forget that he was about to get married to a girl who he believed would take care of his parents? Can any son love his parents so much?'' he asks.

Captian Pramod Jolly of the 12th Jammu and Kashmir Rifles was killed on September 13, 1988, in Jaffna. His mother, who is ill and cannot talk, lives in the memories of the son. Says his brother-in-law, I.S. Marwah, ``She never received any compensation.'' His widow Anuradha has remarried and is living with his two children in Ferozpur.

Marwah looks away remembering Jolly. ``He was killed in a party of three which was advancing in Jaffna. The other two were also killed.'' But he like many other families, only got the condolence message. At the thought of another Indian mission to Lanka, he shudders.

Major-General D.N. Khurana, AVSM (retd), was in charge of operational planning in Jaffna for two years. He gives reasons why people like Kanva and Jolly were killed and why IPKF was not exactly a success story.

``First, the IPKF was not allowed to use our optimum fire power, like long-range weapons or air force. Secondly, the LTTE had better knowledge of the terrain and they had an upper hand in a guerrilla situation. Which meant that they were there on the spot even before we could get there.''

Khurana, who has seen many Indian soldiers cremated on Lankan soil, says, ``These ground problems have not changed. So it would be a mistake to think of sending the troops to Lanka again.''