Balakot a place for jihadi movement.

Balakot located on the banks of Kunhar river in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, has a long history of harboring Jihadists.During early 19th Century Muslim Caliphate was in rise. Syed Ahmed Barelvi born in Rai Bareli, travelled to Pakistan and started Jihadi movement under the pretext of creating Islamic State. He strongly believed in reviving Islamist movement also known as Wahhabism. Along with Maulana Ismail Dehlvi he moved along the region of Pakistan to preach and had created a strong army of Jihadists. It was Balakot as a chosen place for his movement. Balakot was surrounded by hills and a river and he believed infidels will never be able to reach and win over them.

After death of last Sikh guru Guru Gobind Singh, who created the Khalsa community to protect Sikhs from Mughal atrocities. Khalsa had a huge number of warriors by end of 18^th century and early 19^th century. Ranjit Singh at the age of 17 defeated Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. In 1801 Ranjit Singh proclaimed himself as “Maharaja of Punjab” with the support of Sikh community. The first Sikh empire controlled many parts of Pakistan, mainly Lahore and all of Punjab.

While Syed Ahmed had an eye of Sikh empire to crush and finish the community. Unfortunately the British also had supported the mission of Syed Ahmed to weaken the Sikhs. In 1831 declaring Balakot as an ideal place to wage a war over Sikhs or infidels as his movement called non-muslims. All was set for a war with Sikh empire. For many days both the parties waited for the other to take an initiative or start. After one from Syed Ahmed unit suddenly ran down the hills the war started. Fierce was fought with guns, swords and hand to hand. Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his Khalsa were ferocious warriors and routed the entire Syed Ahmed clan of jihadists. Syed Ahmed was beheaded. His jihadi movement was crushed. JeM Masood Azar had the same idea of creating and nurturing jihadi movement in the same place. After nearly 188 years one more Sikh from Indian Air Force has destroyed stronghold in Balakot in the wee hours of 26^th February 2019.

With tears in eyes and strength in heart

With great pain and tears in my eyes, I had to put this together. Being proud to be born in a nation which has gone through world's most ancient civilizations and magnificent culture, has witnessed ups and downs. Nation which is birth place and protector of many religions which are thriving across the world these days. A piece of this world which attracted people from all across the world. Nation's culture where we accepted outsiders from any caste and creed with open hands. But over the several centuries we have been tormented, tortured and maligned by various sects of people like the Mongols, Mughals and the British. We have been killed in mass by ruthless rulers of Mughals and till recent past by the Britishers in Jalianwala Bag. But time and time again some great people like Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Guru Gobind Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar VallabBhai Patel are born and arisen to protect, to get justice and ascertain our integrity as a nation. The entire world knows about those painful history which we had witnessed. Yes we are finally a sovereign country as of now though being partitioned in different regions. During early 19^th Century we have witnessed new countries being formed and birth of United Nations etc. etc. But our plight of injustice and torment still continued even after Independence by a neighboring country Pakistan. I deplore the support countries provided to it over the decades due to their divisive politics. While few countries laughed at our plight few have shown solidarity but none had come forward to support any action.

Recent attack on Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir where around 40 brave Indian soldiers were massacred cold blooded which has once again brought the state of sorrow and anger across our country. I would like to state that time has come for us to rise again for an decisive action against Pakistan which had been waging a proxy war on us over the decades and assuming our soft nature of being human. We are sure we will win with the courage and will power we have seen all along our history. Even if we might be ravaged by the war we are sure that we will stand up again to rebuild the nation once again. We know Indian race is spread across the world. Even if any other country supports us or not if we have to survive and we are ready to protect and survive, and that is it. It is a message to the world leaders that is either you support us or not to interfere in our actions. Because you never supported us when we are hurt apart from mere condolences. It is a message to my countrymen to be prepared for one last time, aftermath when we silence our neighbors forever and don’t have any Line of Control and we have strongest borders defined to be able to protect ourselves in next generations to come. Jai Hind, Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai !!!

RISE OF A PHOENIX CALLED VINAYAK

This is an incredible story of a man who challenged his worsening health condition and went on to become a marathon runner. This is an inspirational narrative of Vinayak who from his near-death experience defied all health restrictions and within next five years went on to complete 42 KM Marathon.

42KMs

21KMs

Vinayak Dattatray Shinde hails from Parbani, Maharashtra. He did his Engineering and landed an IT job in Pune, Maharashtra. Within few years’ time the job dynamics changed, and he was unable to cope up with extreme pressure and stressful life. He got into depression and ultimately started leading a sedentary lifestyle. Unfortunately, the lifestyle took a toll on his health and he got a heart attack in the year 2013 at a mere age of 33. It was shocking to his family and friends as to how a 33 years’ man can get into such condition. By God's grace he survived the attack without getting harmed in anyway and stood up soon. However, the doctor who treated him and seeing the condition of his heart warned him that he would never be able to run even up to 2 kilometres in his entire life.

Vinayak, kept on thinking day and night about what had happened. He decided to turn the things around and slowly moved towards better lifestyle with good food and plenty of rest with all support from his wife and others in the family.

On one fine morning, he thought let's start a healthy lifestyle, rather than sulking. Every morning Vinayak would wake up early and started walking regularly for few meters and added on to few hundred meters gently. This started his confidence to build up day by day. Over a year's time finally he felt good about his health. Henceforth he had become a disciplined health conscious person.

At a juncture he realized why not try jogging along with walking. He started to walk up to electric poll and ran till the next electric poll and continued till he exhausted. He continued doing this building up his stamina and hunger to run more often than just walk. He started practicing running every morning and started adding kilometers in next few months. Confidence was building up day by day. He started adding few hundred meters of run over a year's time and he finally reached a 2K. When he saw the meter touched 2K he felt "WoW", I am still alive and reached 2K, which is doctor said he would never be able to. Vinayak was on CLOUD 9. This inspired him to participate in a local marathon and registered for 3K short marathon which he could complete with a medal of course. Vinayak was overjoyed and was ecstatic with the small achievement he got and that moment he remembered about the doctors who warned him about. Vinayak didn't stop there and as he got a marathon shot on his arm started participating in marathons and slowly increased the levels from 5K to 7K to 10K. What an achievement I believe !!!. It was time for him to dream to complete 42K full marathon. As he completed 21K euphorically he came to meet me and said I had completed 21 KM today and I wholeheartedly  congratulated him with a big hug. We tossed a glass of whisky, but he was not the same person as he was before that incident. He would occasionally come to meet us, have few glasses of whisky and leave early to prepare for next morning's practice session. He set his eyes on his next target he told me he may not come to meet us for next six months, I said alright and wished him all the best. The day arrived when he would try fulfilling his dream, he messaged me and I said All the best Vinayak, it is your day and you can do it. After some hours I saw his picture on facebook completing full marathon with a big smile. I was ecstatic and WoW, this is incredible. The way he managed to get out near death experience and finish 42K in five years time is truly unbelievable.

Vinayak's life has changed forever. Long before he completed full marathon he started motivating his colleagues and friends to be active, to take up walking and running regularly. He has now become marathon guru within his organization and his friends.

Vinayak you are truly amazing, wish you many more medals, accolades and a very long life.

Mohan