SOF Article: "Guns of the Kyber Pass" (ballistics freakshow alert!)

Last time I read an article about a famous one-eyed Punjabi King (I forgot his name - Arvind might know it) - he had a Muslim wife! One day his wife jokingly asked him "Where were you my husband when Allah gave 2 eyes to everybody?". The King laughing and said "I was busy searching for a Kingdom & being late I was given 1 last eye only".


[This message has been edited by mohd (edited 04 December 1999).]
 
That one-eyed Punjabi King Mohd, was Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His other eye actually was lost due to small-pox at a very young age. Interesting notes on him: He was the very first Indian King to utilize European methods of warfare in his conquests and had a number of European and American mercenaries in his armies. In his invasion of Afghanistan, his forces also included a number of Gorkhas. I think Sonam had also mentioned those Gorkhas as being called Lahoriyas because of their being in Lahore.

Arvind
 
Re: SOF article, 4th Gurkhas officer, John Masters wrote about serving in that same area some 60-odd years ago in his great book, "Bugles and a Tiger".

(Story-time!) More recently, I remember as a kid meeting one of dad's fellow officer of the 1st Gorkhas in a party to honor his return after "being loaned" to the Afghan govt. in the mid-80s. From what I understand he served in various capacities with the Soviet-backed Afghan govt. (this was back when India and the USSR were close buddies). Seems he managed to enter the Peshawar region and even bought several local AK varieties in the market which he'd brought back as souvenirs of his trip. How he managed that, I don't know - him being Indian, Hindu, and working with the Soviets, not exactly the most popular combination to be if the locals found out!

Story at that time was that you could buy practically any type of arms in the Peshawar area, from old British Webleys to Russian tanks, for the latter though, there'd be a bit of waiting involved, y'see the boys had to go over the hills, find a suitable specimen, and persuade the occupants to part with it! (of course, this could just be another tall tale, but that's what I heard as an 11yr. old in the 1GR officer's mess!)

Arvind, yaar, you bring up another interesting thing. My family was living in Jammu & Kashmir in 1984 when the troubles began. I remember travelling in trains through Punjab with rifle-toting police and soldiers at every door. Buses had to gather at various points during evenings, form into convoys with police protection and then only could they travel at nights. I remember passing through Delhi immediately after the riots, you could see columns of smoke where the goons had burnt Sikh houses, shops, neighborhoods. Chilling sight to see. I remember hearing, reading and seeing that Sikh neighborhoods which escaped unscathed were where the mobs had run into Sikh men armed and ready to defend their communities, armed here being for the most part tulwars, spears, and the like. It was also at this time that my Sikh classmates began to replace their symbolic kripans with the real, sharp variety displayed prominently. The sisters at my Jesuit high-school were in a big huff over this, but the kids wouldn't back down.

And the one-eyed Sikh King, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, from what little I read seemed to have been quite a character! He fielded a pretty formidable army which included European mercenaries especially in artillery, Gorkhalis (thus the casual Nepali term "Lahuray" for a Gorkha soldier, from Lahore, Ranjit singh's capital).

- Sonam
 
I just thought the following article would be of interest to everyone on here..


Sikhs successfully defend cleric's right to carry ceremonial knife

The Associated Press 12/06/99 5:50 PM Eastern

MENTOR, Ohio (AP) -- A charge of carrying a concealed weapon was dropped
Monday against a Sikh cleric who carries a 6-inch knife as a sign of his
religious faith.

The case of Gurbachan Singh Bhatia had sparked a letter-writing and
phone-call campaign led by fellow Sikhs in Bhatia's temple and aimed at
officials in this city about 20 miles east of Cleveland.

Bhatia and his supporters said his arrest following a minor traffic
accident in September violated his right to practice his religion. Former
Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste, the U.S. ambassador to India, was among those
who wrote in support of Bhatia.

Mentor Municipal Judge Richard Swain dismissed the case Monday. City
Prosecutor Ron Graham had said he would be willing to drop the charge if
Bhatia could demonstrate the knife, called a kirpan, was worn for religious
purposes.

"After reviewing all the evidence I thought it was in the best interest of
everybody to dismiss the case," Graham said.

Speaking through an interpreter, Bhatia said he was thankful to God that
"the prosecutor's office and the court understand my religious commitments
and have dismissed the charges against me."

Bhatia wrote a letter to Graham saying he understood the concerns of police
officers and, in the future, would wear his kirpan outside his clothing
when he is in Mentor.

Bhatia, 69, of Cleveland, began wearing the knife 20 years ago when he was
baptized in India. The kirpan, which is kept in a sheath and harnessed to
a shoulder strap, symbolizes his willingness to defend his faith and his
promise to fight injustices.

Bhatia had earlier refused to plead guilty in exchange for an offer to
reduce the charge from carrying a concealed weapon, which carries a maximum
sentence of six months jail time and a $1,000 fine, to disorderly conduct.

Bhatia was arrested shortly after midnight Sept.3, as he was returning from
a religious ceremony blessing the new home of a Sikh family. He stopped at
a light, and thinking he had gone too far into the intersection, he backed
up, and his car bumped the car behind him. No one was hurt, but as Bhatia
apologized to the occupants of the other car, a passenger noticed that he
seemed to have a bulge under his shirt and pointed it out to police
officers. The knife was discovered, and Bhatia was arrested.

On Monday, Bhatia pleaded no contest to improper backing for the traffic
accident and was ordered to pay $100 in court costs.

The 1st District Ohio Court of Appeals overturned a similar municipal court
conviction of a Sikh man for carrying a concealed weapon in 1996 in
Cincinnati.

"To be a Sikh is to wear a kirpan -- it is that simple. It is a religious
symbol and in no way a weapon," Judge Mark Painter wrote.

The Associated Press, 1999

 
Sonam,

I just barely missed your post, I was not in Punjab or Delhi at the time all the troubles began, I was just newly arrived here in the US when it all happened. My father and sister were in Ludhiana though and I remember my father mentioning that there had been curfew imposed in almost whole of Punjab at the time. Just another bit of info, the curfew that was imposed in Seattle is comparatively mild to that imposed in India at least at that time in Punjab. During that particular curfew, my father mentioned that there were shoot at sight orders for anyone coming out without special permission or escort of police.. Anyhow I had read a post you had put up a while ago reg'd Sikhs where you had mentioned Lahurays(sp?) as being Gorkhas from Lahore..

Btw, I'm glad to see you back on here yaar.

Arvind


 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top