Amitabh Bachchan breaks silence on Pahalgam attack, hails Operation Sindoor

by IANS |

Mumbai, May 11 (IANS) Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan on Sunday broke his much-criticised silence and paid tribute to the Indian armed forces for delivering a fitting response to Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Bachchan, who had faced flak for not commenting publicly after the April 22 massacre in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, returned to X with a stirring tribute interwoven with poetic lines from his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Since the attack, which saw 26 innocent civilians brutally murdered by Pakistan-backed The Resistance Front (TRF), Bachchan's X account had gone unusually quiet.

His last meaningful post on April 22 cryptically read, "The silent X chromosome .. deciding the brain..". In the days that followed, he continued posting only the 'T' serial numbers of his posts, with no messages -- until Sunday.

Recalling the horror of the massacre, Bachchan wrote in Hindi (loosely translated as), "While celebrating the holidays, that monster dragged the innocent couple outside, stripped the husband naked, and after confirming his religion, started shooting him. Even after the wife fell on her knees and cried and requested not to kill her husband, that cowardly monster shot her husband very ruthlessly, making the wife a widow."

He further quoted the terrorists' response when victims pleaded to be killed together: "When the wife said 'Kill me too'!! So the demon said, 'No! You go and tell '….'!"

According to survivor accounts, the terrorist had chillingly told one of the victims, "Tumhe nahi marenge, tum jaake Modi ko batana" (We won't kill you, you go tell Modi).

Bachchan, however, did not mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name directly in his post.

Reflecting on the emotional trauma faced by families of victims, Bachchan invoked a powerful verse from his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan: "On my daughter's mental state, I remembered a line from a poem by my honourable father. Suppose that daughter went to '…' and said -- Hai Chita ki rakh kar mei, maangti sindoor duniya (There are ashes in hand, and the world is asking for vermilion)."

He then connected it to the armed forces' retaliatory offensive: "So '…' gave the Sindoor!!! OPERATION SINDOOR!!!"

Operation Sindoor is the code name for the precise and strategic retaliatory strikes carried out by Indian armed forces on May 7, targeting nine key terror installations across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Concluding with a spirited message, Bachchan wrote: "Jai Hind, Jai Hind ki Sena. Tu na thamega Kabhi, tu na mudega kabhi, tu na jhukega kabhi. Kar sapath, kar sapath, kar sapath! Agni path, agni path, agni path!!!" -- echoing his father's iconic poem 'Agneepath', symbolising unyielding resolve.