Authors: AJAY
Assistant Commander
The NSG Commandos
initiated Operation Cactus-II. Forty miles south east of Tehri Dam, they jumped from the rear cargo door of the Ilyushin II-76 Jet. A few dropped right into the valley, while the strong mountain winds pushed some of them further away. An hour later, all of them assembled at Molnau, about fourteen miles east of the Tehri Dam.
The Assistant Commander asked them to load their SIG weapons, the Laser Designator, the Advance Audio Communication Set, GPS device and other gadgets into the vehicle.
The vehicle crossed many hills and mountains and it took an hour to reach the left bank of the Tehri Reservoir. They got down half a mile before the dam and crawled over the mountain, overlooking the dam. They took their respective positions while the AC inspected the area with his binoculars. There was nothing to be suspicious about. He asked his commandos to descend the mountain and try to reach the dam and report thereafter.
Suddenly, his attention was drawn towards a helicopter, landing on the right side of the reservoir. He trained his binoculars once again.
Two men stepped out of the helicopter and ran towards the Dam. His Commandos locked the crosswire of their IMI Galil sniper on the two men. One of them said, "Sir, target engaged. Waiting for orders."
The AC raised his hand and increased the gain of his binocular, "Hold on. I think I know one of the men."He strained his brain, "Oh! He is Siddhartha Rana, the Joint Director of Intelligence Bureau. I met him during the meeting on the Mumbai attacks. But what the hell is he doing here?"
He got the answer, when his audio communication set caught a signal. "Listen very carefully, commander. I'm Siddhartha Rana on your communication line. I've orders for you from the Home Minister."
"What order, sir?"The AC was perplexed.
"We don't have to act in haste since the Government of India still doesn't know the purpose of the Jihadists."
"They have only one aim, Sir. They want to destroy India."
"Still hold your position. The Prime Minister of India is aware of the situation. He wants to negotiate. So, let's wait."
"But I need to send my men to the opposite side of the dam; the side where you are standing."
"Don't send them."Siddhartha thought for some time. "Is your unit carrying any Mini Remotely Operated Vehicles?"
"Yes, sir. We have very advanced Unmanned Ground Vehicle."
"Well, send one of them to the dam. And give me the frequency of your UGV. I want to listen to everything that goes on there."
The commando activated the UGV and placed it on the mountain slope. The UGV started to map the contours of the terrain. It descended the mountain slope, maneuvered onto the dam wall just above the surface of water, stopped to catch a human voice, rotated in the direction of the sound and finally, climbed the wall two feet below the edge. The actuator became active and an optical fibre cable slid out. The sound receiver at the end of the cable started to catch a conversation.
"What are you listening to?"a soft female voice came from the back.
"How did you find us, Juhi?"Aban whirled around astonished.
"The heart has its ways that reason does not know."
Demand
"I want peace
between Pakistan and
Hindustān
,"Shalim Amār Khan said in a very soft tone.
The Prime Minister of India was surprised. "We also want permanent peace with all our neighbours including Pakistan."
"Aha! Permanent peace!"Shalim Amār Khan laughed and then quickly changed his tone to a stentorian voice, "Mr. Prime Minister, my apologies. But your country has never done anything to establish permanent peace with Pakistan."
"We have tried a lot and are still doing enough to thaw the ice."
"Don't play a cat and mouse game. Give us permanent peace. Give our people peace."
"What do you propose?"
"Plebiscite!"
"What?"
"Don't shut your eyes and ears, Mr. Prime Minister. You know as well as I do what plebiscite is. I want the people of Kashmir to decide their destiny. A plebiscite in Kashmir is my demand."
"Try to understand. It's too complicated. We followed the Simla agreement in the right spirit. Unfortunately Pakistan never did."
"I know what your agreement did to us. I know what it did to me."
"Listen…"
"No questions. Call a press conference and declare that in view of international peace and for the cherished brotherhood with Pakistan,
Hindustān
will hold plebiscite in Kashmir within a month from today."
"It's not possible to take such an important decision without talking to my cabinet colleagues, the Leader of the Opposition and other political parties. We have to take Parliament and our people into confidence. As on today, no one will agree to your proposal."
"Forget about the others. Do you agree?"
"I don't."
"Stop me if you can. Stop a small seiche from turning into a giant."
"Listen, please."
"No questions."The line went dead.
Initiation
Siddhartha, Aban and
Juhi listened to the tense conversation between Shalim Amār Khan and the Prime Minister.
Aban turned to Juhi thoughtfully and repeated the phrase, "No questions."
"What?"
"I'm disturbed with the repetition of the phrase 'No questions'."
"It's very common in our part of the continent."
"I know. Still…"Aban was thinking aloud, "Can he be? But the voice is so different. How could he?"
Suddenly a thunderous explosion shook the earth. The semtex in the four diversion tunnels removed the sealing cap. The water rushed inside. The second explosion in the tunnel pushed the water outward towards the lake. The harmless seiche of the lake, swaying in tranquility now gained momentum.
"Oh God! He has initiated his operation!,"Siddhartha broke into a cold sweat. "Who can stop him now?"
"But where is he?"Aban was frightened and very anxious.
Siddhartha trained his binoculars and pointed his hand. "He is there, standing on the dam, holding something like a remote control device."
Aban looked at the dam. He asked Siddhartha to lend him his binoculars, "I want to see who he is."
The underwater wave surged ahead and reached a small hill on the far side of the dam. Another explosion on the hill shook the earth. The hill crumbled and a huge mass of earth, forest, timber, logs and a small CISF booth fell into the reservoir.
"Look at the wave approaching the dam. It's almost a thirty feet tall wall of water."Juhi shouted.
Aban continued to look at the tall man, "No. It can't be. It's impossible. He looks so different."He blurted out, adding to the general confusion.
The AC of the NSG contacted Siddhartha, "Sir, we've engaged the target. If we don't act now, this dam will not stand the waves."
"Hold on for a second."Siddhartha turned to Aban and told him that the AC wanted orders to shoot the man standing on the dam.
Aban responded, "This wave can do no harm. The dam can sustain much bigger impacts."
"But if he fires more explosives, the wave will go on increasing."
"Try to understand. They are prepared. They made an exact mathematical model and have done a perfect simulation of the destruction. They are not fools. I believe the whole process must be automated now. Killing him may be counterproductive, because if he dies, we will never be able to stop the catastrophe. He has to live. Only he knows how to abort what he has initiated."
"How can we just wait and let the inevitable happen?"
"I propose that you ask the Air Force to fly down from their airbase, loaded with explosives. Let them encircle the airspace and await your instructions to bombard the reservoir."
"It'll worsen the situation. I don't buy your theory."
"Trust me. That would be the last solution. However, we'll exercise this option only as a last resort."
The wave from the far end approached and struck the dam with full force. Exactly at that moment, four more semtex exploded in the four diversion tunnels. The underwater wave synchronized with the surface wave and once again moved away from the dam to the far side of the river. The water of the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana swelled in the upstream as the strong wave pushed it backward.
"Damn it! We can't do a thing while this man is doing exactly what he wants."
"We have a little more time."
"How?"
"After the hill on the far side collapses, the wave will move uninterrupted twenty-eight miles to the far end of the Bhagirathi River. Even if the wave is travelling at sixty miles an hour, it will take more than fifty-five minutes for it to travel back and hammer the dam."
"What if another hill is exploded just a few miles from here?"
"Then, we won't have any time. But it's not the waves that I'm worried about."
"What worries you, Aban?"Juhi joined in.
"Oscillation."
The UGV started to catch Shalim Amār Khan's deep-throated laughter. "No questions."
Aban trained his binoculars. The man continued laughing, strode to the downstream end of the dam. Quickly, he turned back to reach the lakeside and watched the dancing waves. "No questions. No questions."Suddenly Shalim Amār Khan became excited like a soldier in the middle of a war, when cannon shells are booming all around. His hands started to tremble and moved to his thighs, scratching it vigorously.
Aban was stunned. He turned to Juhi, "I know who he is!"
Juhi stared at Aban blankly.
Siddhartha spoke out, "He is a rogue. He is the Deputy Commandant of the CISF, an antinational working for Pakistan."
"You have got it all wrong. He is my
Abba
,"Saying this Aban ran towards his father, MacBook in one hand and tears streaming down his face.
Siddhartha tried to stop Aban and ran after him in hot pursuit. Juhi stood still, shell-shocked.
Aban shouted, "Stop it for god's sake,
Abba
,"and continued to run towards Imran Shah Malik, aka Shalim Amār Khan, "Stop it,
Abba
!"
Imran Shah Malik turned.
Threat
Fifty Pakistani Army trucks,
each crammed with soldiers and modern weapons, waited a few miles away from the residence of the Prime Minister of Pakistan at Muree Road, near Rawal Lake.
The official car of the Army Chief of Pakistan entered the Prime Minister's residence. The General ran inside, pushing aside an American Special Armed Force offcier guarding the entry who did not know that he was the Army Chief and allowed unbridled access to the PM. Other Pakistani security guards gestured the man to allow the General to go.
The Prime Minister was talking on his hotline. The Army Chief turned his attention to the big sized LCD.
PTV, the Pakistan Television News channel stopped its programme midway for an important announcement. The anchor of the program appeared, "We have got an important tape from al Qaeda. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, the media spokesperson of al Qaeda, will start addressing you in a few seconds.
Adam Yahiye Gadahn appeared and spoke in his deep, serene voice, "My dear fellow Islamic brothers, recall what Muhammad preached to us. His call of duty reminds us to do everything possible to slay the non-believer…"The message continued.
The Prime Minister put down the phone on its cradle and turned to the Army General, "Weren't you supposed to be in Rawalpindi? How come you are here?"
"We have a situation, Mr. Prime Minister."
"I know that Tehri Dam in India is under threat. Our people are trying to explode it."
"You know they are non-state actors."
"This time I have confirmed information that few people are actually state-actors."
"Have you shared this with anyone?"
"Yes."
"To whom?"
"The Prime Minister of India."
"Do you know the international ramifications of such an admission?"
"I'm aware of it."
"The Pakistani Army will never tolerate such nonsense."
"I think the Army should know by now that terror in any form is just terror."
The message of Adam Yahiye Gadahn ended and the anchor reappeared. "A few minutes back, the Government of
Hindustān
has informed Pakistan that the Tehri Dam in their Himalayan region is under Pakistani terrorist attack. In fact, our media correspondent heard three explosions. I'll update you with the latest after a short commercial break. I'll be right back; till then don't go anywhere. Stay tuned."
The Army General sounded jittery, "Our AWACS have caught the signature of the Indian Air Force aircrafts, which have taken off from Dehradun and other Indian AFBs that are not far off from our borders."
"They may be on their regular sorties."
The anchor was back on PTV once again, "We have just received information that the
Hindustāni
Air Force has retaliated with a vengeance. Their Sukhoi-30 and Jaguar have invaded Pakistani airspace. Their course indicates that they are flying towards Tarbela Dam in Haripur District. If they attack the biggest dam of Pakistan, this hundred and fifty metre high dam will collapse at once. A colossal amount of water of more than one hundred square cubic miles will empty out in a few hours. All our major cities including the capital will be submerged under water in a matter of another few hours."The anchor continued explaining the disaster in waiting.
The Army General turned to the Prime Minister, "What are you waiting for? Our country is under attack. I want you to give orders for appropriate countermeasures."
"What countermeasures do you want?"
"You know that I don't need your authorization for striking down their plane with our anti-aircraft missiles and engage them in air combat. I've full authority and I'm ordering this."
"Go ahead."
"I want your authorization for nuclear code access."
"Why?"
"You are aware that we cannot match their air superiority. If they have decided to destroy our biggest dam, they will do it. I've no doubt about that. But if we announce right now that Pakistan will exercise the nuclear option right away if their aircrafts do not turn back, it will surely have a deterrent effect."
"I'm sorry, General. As the first in the hierarchy of National Command Authority, I won't allow it. In my view, the nuclear option is the last resort in our doctrine."
"It's not. We have reserved the right to exercise the first-attack, if we are under threat from an enemy country. I don't need to repeat what our book says on nuclear protocol."
"Well, I amended the nuclear doctrine only yesterday with the approval of the Cabinet Committee. You may get a copy of this from the Secretariat of the NCA."
"It's illegal. I am ex-officio member of the NCA. Decisions in the NCA take place through consensus and I have my vote in the decision making process. You cannot do it without taking into confidence all the ex-officio members of the NCA including me. Moreover, the concurrence of the President is also mandated."
"If you remember, our parliament Majlis-e-Shoora has already received the assent of the President, this year, on 11th March. Don't forget that I'm the Chairman of the NCA. Moreover, your role is limited to overseeing the functioning of Strategic Plans Division. In addition, nuclear doctrine is a government political decision and does not require convening a formal meeting of the NCA to vote on this subject or endorse it. I think I'm clear that I don't need your advice."
"I have no time for unnecessary arguments. From now on, the patriotic Army of Pakistan is taking control of the government."
"You can't."
"Who will stop me?"The livid Army General was trembling with fury. He pulled out his phone and pressed its keypads. However, he could not connect his phone. He tried a few more times, wondering what had gone wrong.
The Prime Minister smiled, "We have blocked your access from the time you entered the premises."
"How dare you do that?"
"Turn around and look at the men behind you. I suggest you hand over your Army revolver to these people without any protest."
The Army General turned around and was taken aback when he saw US Special Army Personnel. One of the officers smiled, "It's the Black Ops, buddy."
The PTV Anchor was live once again, "We have just received sensational video footage. The fighter aircraft of the
Hindustāni
Air Force has blown up Tarbela Dam."
The TV screen filled with the Sukhoi-30 and Jaguar firing missiles on the dam. The dam crumbled and water rushed out, submerging the Tarbela Airport instantly.
The Anchor continued, "Our correspondent will try to get more video footage. Stay tuned for further updates."
The Army General said, "We need to evacuate Islamabad and Rawalpindi without any further delay. Islamabad is hardly thirty miles from the dam. The capital will be submerged in no time. Mr. Prime Minister, I suggest an immediate evacuation of the President, you, your cabinet colleagues and my military personnel. I'm afraid if we do not do it, there will be no government in Pakistan."
"Hold your breath, General. Nothing is going to happen."
"Are you blind? Can't you see what your government TV channel has just broadcast?"
The Prime Minister smiled, "I know you aren't blind. Look a little below the screen. The DVD player is running this documentary."
"Isn't it a live program?"
"It was to be. Fortunately, it is not so now."
"Thank God! I should inform the army to de-escalate the heightened situation. Perhaps I'll need to talk to the Chief of Air Staff to hold fire."
"I didn't ask you to put your army on alert. But the action of a few ISI officers put me on alert two days back. Let me give you the complete picture. When I came to know about the real intention behind the Tupac-II program, hatched by the al Qaeda, I did everything possible in the supreme national interest. US Special Army secured this place just in case the army tried to usurp power in panic. It is true that the Tarbela Dam was under threat in the same way as Tehri is today. Al Qaeda got hold of a spare submarine and a huge quantity of semtex. They planted the explosives at the bottom of the Tarbela Dam, on its diversion tunnel and at three other places in the hillside, just like our people in the Tehri Reservoir did. It was an exact mirror image of what is happening in India right now."
The Prime Minister continued with an air of knowledge, "Unfortunately, till a few hours ago, we were sure that the Sardar Sarovar Dam in India was under attack. Accordingly, I informed the Prime Minister of India, so that he could secure and sanitize the Sardar Sarovar. However, the Indian Intelligence found out that it was not the Sardar Sarovar, but the Tehri Dam, which was the target. If something happens to Tehri Dam, we all will live to regret it ' both India and Pakistan. As of now, I can do nothing, but extend the support of our government to the Indian government."
The Prime Minister sipped water and continued in his calm tone, "Coming back to Tarbela Dam, US Marines explosives experts have removed all explosives from the dam planted by the al Qaeda. But the al Qaeda had a plan-B too, in case something went wrong with their original plan. Saeed al-Masri sent his Jihadists with rocket launchers and explosives to board a speedboat and attack the dam from the Indus River."The Prime Minister stood and went to the DVD and loaded another disk. "Look at this disk and see how the drone missile eliminated each of the Jihadists at a place not very far away from Youi Bridge on the Indus River."
The Army Chief was stunned. "Oh God! Al Qaeda is driving us to disaster."
"Not as long as we are together. Sadly, two very high-ranking officers: one in the Air Force and the other in my own office was involved in this affair. They were in constant touch with Saeed al-Masri."
"Who is the Air Force officer?"
"None other than the one who gave you false information about the AWACS getting the Indian fighters' signature."
"We really need to cleanse the system. But how did you get wind of it?
"We came to know of many things after I asked the President of the United States to bug our complex."
"Is this place bugged?"
"Yes. Perhaps, for the first time in history, the Head of State of a sovereign country has made such a request to another country."
"But what about this documentary on the Tarbela Dam?"
"Truth is stranger than fiction. Strange are the ways of the al Qaeda. One minute, they are a crude tribal clan of mob mentality and the next -- sophisticated, techno savvy masterminds. al Qaeda prepared a fake film at a small film studio at Ravi Road in Lahore. This was the same film that was to be broadcast live on our national channel PTV. Imagine what would have happened had they succeeded in their plan. Your anti-aircraft missile and combat aircraft would have still been searching for some elusive Indian fighter jet as we spoke. With each moment ticking away, I would have slipped into panic too. I might even have considered using the nuclear option."
"How does al Qaeda benefit by this?"
"We all know that al Qaeda is fully aware about the locations of our nuclear arsenal. Still, our nuclear facilities are so well bastioned that nobody, not even the al Qaeda can storm in and steal our nuclear heads. So, they took our topmost Air Force officer and a few middle-level ranking officers into their fold by luring them with money and promises of putting them at the pinnacle of power, when they came to power. Our topmost officer of the Air Force became a pawn in the hands of these terrorists. So, he ordered the nuclear facility at Chaklala to assemble two nuclear warheads, load them into an Air Force Jet and delivered them straight into the hands of al Qaeda. A Dassault Falcon aircraft with these two nuclear bombs took off from the Chaklala Air Defence Command and delivered one of them to the walled city of Lahore. When the Commodore of Sargodha located the mysterious aircraft and shot it down somewhere in the north of Zhob, the other nuclear warhead was hurriedly dropped and presently lies somewhere in the vast land of North Waziristan."
The Army Chief heard in rapt attention as the Prime Minister elaborated on the complexity of the 'game'. "These nuclear devices, however, are still useless for al Qaeda because they do not possess the nuclear code to trigger the nukes. Hence, the devious plan to bring India and Pakistan to the brink of war by showing us this fabricated video footage. If we in Pakistan thought that we were under attack from India, I would have called a meeting with the Defence Minister and you, our Chief of Army. The Defence Minister and I would have signed the documents and handed over the codes to you without so much as batting an eyelid. As defined by our protocol, you would have had no choice, but to pass on the codes to the Air Force and our good friend there would have promptly handed it over to his bosses in the al Qaeda. Armed with the power to detonate the nukes, the al Qaeda would have turned the tables of the balance of power in their own favour. They would have immediately slapped the demand on us to stop all operations against al Qaeda or else they would destroy Lahore. The next line of action would have been to threaten America. They would have ordered the Americans to vacate Afghanistan, remove their dummy government from Kabul and hand over power to them. In case of any dithering on the part of America, the al Qaeda would have detonated the nuke, pulverizing Kabul.