Fidayeens often come with a stock of pain killers

Fidayeens often come with a stock of pain killers

Dr K K Aggarwal

Terrorists always are armed with a ready supply of painkillers. The idea is to prepare them for the long haul and keep on fighting even after sustaining injuries, by using the painkillers. The Pathankot terrorist had with them a supply of mefenamic acid pain killers. 

There is a difference between a suicide attack and a fidayeen operation. Both are inevitably suicide operations, but the number of participants and mode of attack differ.

A suicide operation invariably means an attack by a terrorist who kills himself/herself to kill the target. Such operations are just one bang and it’s over.

A fidayeen attack, however, is a pitched battle by terrorists (who generally execute such operations in large numbers, not unlike a compact guerrilla army unit) and these pitched battles are a fight to the finish where the perpetrators come fully prepared with complete clarity that they won’t go back alive.

It’s the fidayeen attackers who will bring with them a stock of pain-killers building their endurance on the battlefield.

About mefenamic acid

1.     The drug is effective in acute inflammatory and non-inflammatory pain.

2.     It belongs NSAID group of pain killer [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug]

3.     It is used to relieve pain and inflammation in a wide range of musculoskeletal conditions, including muscular pain and traumatic pain such as sprains and fractures. It can also be used to relieve other types of pain, such as toothache, headaches and pain following surgery.

4. Other similar drugs are ibuprofen and naproxen

5. The recommendation not use mefenamic acid for longer than a week.

6. It is less sedating pain killer. Only 5/1000 people will get sedation after taking this pain killer

Ready availability of painkillers in India and in neighbouring countries can be enabling to addicts and terrorists alike. Prescription presentation should be strictly enforced to all customers at pharmacies. Painkillers, amphetamines, and other prescription drugs are abused around the world, and in the hands of terrorists possibly brings them to the trance like state required to undertake heinous acts of crime.

Indian anti-terrorism efforts would also be boosted by vigil on narcotics and other substances abused by the masses, which could have an overall reducing effect on crime in the country in addition to terrorism.