Don't underestimate the power of bullet

Don't underestimate the power of bullet

Two bullets fired by Gavrilo Princip, a 19 years old youth, member of 'Young Bosnia' on 28 June 1914, took the life of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro- Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie, led directly the WW-I on 28 July 1914.

They were six killers, settled at different locations en-route of the visit of the Franz Ferdinand and his wife to Sarajevo to open the state museum. The first two assassins failed to act but the third threw a bomb on the motorcade at 10.10 AM, but it was bounced back and exploded the next car, wounding 16-20 people. Franz Ferdinand and his wife were saved, they reached to the Town Hall and attended the function under stress. The Governor failed in managing their further protection from attack. They changed their planned programme and decided to visit the hospital where the wounded persons from the bombing were admitted. The Governor changed the route but failed to communicate to the motorcade driver as his assistant was in the hospital. After the failure of the first attempt of assassination, Princip was waiting to act on the return journey of the Archduke. Little confused he crossed the road and returned. The driver of the motorcade followed the original route and when he turned off the Apple Quay, the Governor from the second vehicle called out and told him to reverse and take a Quay to the hospital. The driver stopped the car to revert, but in front of them Princip was standing. Before the driver backing up, Princip opened two fire, wounded mortally the Archduke and his wife. The couple died while being driven to the Governor's residence for treatment. Anti Serb riots broke out, Europe went into shock, Serbia didn't accept all the demands of the ultimatum given by the empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war against Serbia, Germany joined Central forces. France and Russia joined the Alliance. There after, the war was joined by other countries to settle their border issues, ended up with deaths 20 million people and with plantation of seeds of WW-II in the treaty of Versailles. One bullet of Princip took away 20 million lives, beautiful world was destroyed and the history and geography of many countries were changed in 20th century.

Don't underestimate the power of bullet. It has killed Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and changed our history too.

Punamchand
21 August 2017