The soldier and the bandit

Ghazi ya Shaheed? 

A soldier was posted to a remote location, one where bandits and dacoits were disturbing the peace and safety.

The police, as they often do, could not handle it.

So the soldier did what he was ordered to do. He hunted them down.

Now the thing about bandits and dacoits in interior Sindh is that they do not ever, dead or alive, get caught. 

Never; they live the lives of the ‘hood’. The villages support them, the feudal respect them and the police torture them and kill them.

Glory until death comes.

This soldier, a real officer and a gentleman, had one surrounded in the middle of a sugar-cane field. Now anyone who knows sugar-cane knows the crop is thick.

Too thick for bullets, one cannot get to the middle. Bandits know this. As do soldiers.

All day, and all night, the negotiations went on. The solider, commander and Chief pleaded and re-assured the bandit he would not be harmed. The bandit says no surrender.

After 24 hours, the officer, the soldier, orders a mortar. The bandit is killed.

The soldier tried his best. He did not want another death on his roster. The circumstances were beyond him.

He had his orders, the bandit has his.

These are not bad people. You can pick your side. Only few sides exist within the world of chaos and disorder.

Shahbaz Ali-Khan

Lahore, 26^th November

2012