Vani in War!

Vani, a 7 year old, caused a temporary halt to the fire from Jaffna Fort.
The Marathas had been guarding the Fort since the Indian Peace Keeping Force
moved into Srilanka to put an end to the war between the Srilankan Military
and the LTTE. It was indeed a shock to the unsuspecting MLI ( Maratha Light
Infantry) to face live bullets from the Tamil Militants who launched a
surprise attack on Jaffna Fort. And the Marathas responded in a reckless
manner opening fire indiscriminately. In the exchange of fire the Indian
soldiers suffered a few casualties. Suddenly Vani appeared in front of the
troops with her goat at her usual place as if she was oblivious of what had
been going on.
Vani's presence in the no man's land was somethig the men in uniform found
most difficult to handle! They stopped the retaliation and asked their NCO
what to do who in turn asked his boss, the JCO who in turn referred the
matter to his Company Commander. The Company Commander, a junior major fresh
from the Junior Commanders(JC) course at the College of Combat, was not
comfortable to give a solution. He rushed to where I was standing along with
another Company Commander. This commander was a senior major already
superseded for promotion but liked by the men. Clear in mind and confident
by nature, this guy gave his advice to carry on with the retaliation; there
was no sense in trying to save the girl. Turning to me he said, in war there
was no time for any such sentiment.
As the Commanding Officer of an Electronic Warfare unit I was busy with
other things but I couldn't miss the significance of the senior major's
advice in the crucial battle that set the the beginning of IPKF operations
in Srilanka called" Op Pawan"!