by Vivek Ahuja
“Do what we can.” Wencang said finally. “Get the word out to our men to get as far away from potential targets without raising too much of an alarm. We don’t know far Hussein has spread his plans yet even within his own commanders. For our own forces, increase readiness but otherwise do nothing. We will see how this plays out and determine the best time for us to step in and finish the job.”
──── 34 ────
A TOW missile slammed into the engine compartment of the Arjun tank and ripped it apart, tossing debris in all directions as the massive hulk of the vehicle caught fire and shuddered to a halt. Fifty meters behind, Kulkarni’s tank also came to a halt.
“Oh shit!” Kulkarni let out the expletives as the chaotic comms chatter lit up all across the net.
“Where did that come from?” His gunner screamed as flames leapt out of the burning tank’s hatches, turning it into a fiery coffin for the crew…
Another thundering crash rippled through the tank from the rear and Kulkarni turned around to see another tank towards his rear emitting smoke and flames. Its crew leapt to safety out of open hatches. His brain caught up with the flow of events: “we are under attack from enemy helicopter gunships! Deploy smoke cover now, now, now!!”
“Roger!” His gunner replied just as a tube of sparks and streaking tracers flew horizontally from his south as the Tunguska anti-air vehicles went into action. The initial gunfire from these vehicles was supposed to be a distraction for the Pakistani cobra helicopter pilots; to get them to evade and lose track of their missiles. As the tracers went their way, one of the Tunguska vehicles ripple fired three of its anti-air missiles from the turret-side tubes. The missiles arced across the early morning sky and accelerated west…
Kulkarni didn’t get to see where they went, however, because his optics were instantly obscured by aerosol smoke clouds. His optics disabled temporarily, he pulled up the ABAMS screen and saw that three Arjun tanks were no longer registering their onboard handshake protocols.
“Goddamn it!”.
His tanks were reversing through the smoke. He could hear the rumble of distant explosions…as well as nearer ones. With no vehicle-to-vehicle connection between rhino and trishul, there was not much he could do to see how the anti-air forces were doing. He pulled himself to his optics and saw the manmade fog clearing…
“Breaker, breaker. Trishul-actual to rhino-actual: skies are clear. Out.”
“Rhino-actual copies all.” Kulkarni added as his heart tried to punch out of his chest. And to his driver: “stop reverse. Bring us out of this smoke.”
“Roger.”
The vehicle stopped and then rumbled forward. Within a few seconds they were out of the dissipating aerosol smoke and rumbling past the viciously burning Arjun tank that had been in front of them. Kulkarni saw through his optics the burning remains of that tank crew as they had attempted to leave their burning vehicle.
It could have so easily been us…a voice in his head said. He noticed his hands shaking. The turret swiveled to the side.
“Looks like we aren’t the only ones who took losses,” his gunner replied.
Kulkarni swiveled his sights to see a burning Tunguska vehicle to the south. Some supply trucks drove past it. Another Tunguska had already taken over and was now keeping pace with rhino. The only solace for Kulkarni were the two smoke columns on the western horizon indicating downed enemy helicopters…
“Be mindful of the enemy,” Kulkarni ordered. “We are the lead tank now.” He go a nod from his gunner.
He wondered how weak his voice sounded. He had to grip the handles for his sights tighter to prevent them from shaking. Why? This wasn’t his first time in combat. Hell, it wasn’t even his first war! So what was this? War weariness? Whatever it was, he concluded, he couldn’t let it take control of his body. Not right now. His men looked to him for stability in the midst of all this madness and chaos. He could not let them down. He could not let himself down.
“Rhino-actual, this is rhino-bravo-actual,” the radio came alive. “We are encountering increasing numbers of civilians evacuating from the town towards the highway. Indications exist that the highway may be clogged with civilian traffic. Suggest you proceed accordingly, over.”
Kulkarni nodded. “Agreed, rhino-bravo. Stay the fuck away from the civilians and shoot to kill anyone, and I mean anyone, who comes close to your tanks. We will do the same. Out.” The link chimed off.
“You heard what I said?” He asked his gunner.
“I did, sir. Shoot first, shoot to kill. Ask questions later.”
“Good.” Kulkarni then switched to the driver: “we should have sight of the highway soon enough. There will be civilian traffic. Proceed with caution and watch for mines.”
“Roger.”
Kulkarni then went back to his optics. The sky was just slightly pink and red to the east now. Yet another day of the war was starting in earnest. The western skies were still greyish-black. Night optics were of no use under such “twilight” conditions: just enough light to ruin night optics and not enough light to see anything with the naked eye. Wonderful conditions for a…
The streak of tracers from a cluster of houses nearby flew over his turret. Several of them slammed into the turret with metallic clangs. Kulkarni opened unit-wide comms as his gunner swiveled the turret to bring the main gun to bear on those houses: “rhino-actual is taking fire from the cluster of houses on the south-west edge of town. Trace back the fire for target position! Follow my tracers if required. Engage and destroy!”
The turret shook violently as the main gun recoiled and the spent sabot round fell back to the turret floor. The round slammed into the walls of the cement building from where the enemy fire was emanating. The sabot round is designed for tank combat. Against a cement and sand structure, it just passed through without much damage. It did leave a gaping hole in the wall on the second floor. The loader now put in an high-explosive round more suited for urban combat and it caused the entire second floor to erupt in a cloud of smoke and cement dust.
“Target building is destroyed!” The gunner exclaimed.
“Good kill!” Kulkarni replied.
“Why are the Pakistanis engaging us with light guns?” The driver asked. “What did they expect to happen?”
“These are the amateur jihadists.” Kulkarni replied. He had made a similar observation. “Or a rear-echelon unit caught unawares by our advance. Expect more asymmetric warfare from the enemy from now on. They will try and fight us the way the Taliban did in Afghanistan. Mines and suicide attacks coupled with regular army forces like those helicopters we encountered earlier!”
The sound of tank fire to their rear ended the conversation. The gunner began searching for new targets. Kulkarni rotated his optics to their rear and saw friendly tanks firing main gun rounds against enemy infantry within the civilian buildings inside Rahim Yar khan…
“Rhino-bravo is engaged in combat,” Kulkarni added for the benefit of his crew, who couldn’t see what he was seeing. As he watched, over a dozen Arjun tanks engaged a cluster of buildings inside the town. An entire line of buildings disappeared in balls of fire, smoke and dust. A few of the buildings collapsed. Enemy mortar fire erupted around the slowly moving Arjun tanks, but these could not possibly do any damage except perhaps to the tank treads. The tanks of rhino-bravo were moving east to west along the road and were flanking Kulkarni’s tanks. They moved sideways with their turrets swiveled at ninety degrees to engage targets. The tanks were following up main gun rounds with the rattle of co-ax machinegun fire, ignoring the mortar explosions.
The mortar fire worried Kulkarni, though. Time to call in a favor from Sudarshan: “rhino-actual to steel-central. We are encountering indirect mortar fire from within Rahim Yar Khan. Requesting counter-battery support. Over.”
“We see it and are working on it. Steel-central out.”
For Kulkarni, this battle was like a roadside show. He could do little other than to watch as it played out
and trust the training and caliber of his men to ensure they came out on top. He almost missed a heartbeat when an enemy tank round slashed from between some buildings and just barely missed the front of an Arjun tank rolling sideways to the threat. The latter Arjun crew got into action and brought their front armor to face towards the yet unseen threat. A Pakistani T-80 tank rumbled between the narrow buildings to the north. Both it and the Arjun tank fired at each other simultaneously and the two tank rounds hit their targets. On the Arjun side, the enemy round hit square bang into the center of the Kanchan composite armor plating on the turret and the Arjun literally shuddered backwards behind a cloud of sparks. The T-80 received a round straight into its reactive armor panels and the latter exploded, jerking it aside.
The T-80 was clearly disabled. Its crew scampered out of the turret as smoke began appearing out of the engine. The Arjun tank on the other side of the road, however, shrugged off the hit and despite a nasty scar on its turret armor panels, rumbled back on the road. It fired a second shell and this one passed straight through the detonated reactive panels on the T-80 and demolished the tank in a fountain of sparks and smoke…
There were other T-80s hiding in the town. And rhino-bravo tanks all maneuvered to bring their frontal armor to bear on the besieged town. This was no longer a minor skirmish. It was now a major battle.
Kulkarni knew that there was no way he was sending his tanks inside Rahim Yar Khan to engage the enemy in a cat and mouse game. No, the enemy had to be hunted in a way where he could not respond. Kulkarni thought about talking to Sudarshan but noticed that the latter had already come to the same conclusion when the first air-force AH-64 Apache gunship helicopters flew over his tanks…
──── 35 ────
“What am I about to do?”
Haider had repeatedly asked himself the same question for the past day. He rubbed his hands on his face. He still had no clear answer to it. He sighed and looked to the side of the table to see some picture frames laying on the floor. He pushed his chair back and picked up one of them, blowing the dust off it. It was the picture of a young child who had once stayed here in this apartment…
Where are you now? A voice asked him. Did you make it out of here in time? You probably did. Inshallah.
The picture of the boy seemed to speak to him as though the boy himself was standing in the room. Perhaps a manifestation of his conscience? He looked at the boy as though he were real.
Forgive me for what I must do to your house and that of so many others in this great city of ours. Perhaps Allah will understand that we did it for the safety of your generation against the Hindu threat to our way of life. Perhaps he will have mercy on those of us who shouldered this grave responsibility.
He put the picture back on a wall shelf and adjusted it so that it looked as it should. The boy reminded Haider of his own kids. His family were on a truck convoy heading to the Afghanistan border via Peshawar along with other families of senior Pak army commanders.
Will I see them again? Haider thought. Do I deserve to?
I doubt it.
He frowned and his eyes narrowed. He turned and picked up his sidearm and helmet stacked on the table and stormed out of the room. The chaotic noises enveloped him. The serene thoughts were gone. Time to get the job done.
“Akram!” He shouted over the chatter in his operations center and waved the major over. Akram had been conferring on the map table with the colonels and majors commanding the surviving units around the city. The officers all turned to see Haider and saluted from where they were. Haider returned the salute but did not bother walking over to the table. He knew that these unit commanders had their own evacuation plans to enact. Haider’s plan was to withdraw his forces out of the city within the shortest possible timeframe, leaving only the jihadists to fight blissfully until the end. They had one final role to play before they went to meet Allah, and it was to provide the Pak army time to evacuate from the city.
“Akram,” Haider said as he held the man’s arm and took him aside, “it is imperative that we coordinate all of our forces and pull back uniformly. The jihadists mustn’t expect a thing! If they do, they will drop their weapons and run, and the Indians will overrun all our retreating columns. It will be a massacre!”
“I understand, sir.” Akram said grimly. “The battalion and brigade commanders have been notified to that effect. And the 6TH Armored Division northwest of the city are notified to expect our columns withdrawing from Lahore.”
Haider nodded. “Good. What about our special cargo?”
“Captain Saadat and his men are setting it up near the field-hospital. They just need the go ahead.”
“Excellent.” Haider looked at his wristwatch: “time to start moving, then. Let’s go.”
“Yes sir.” Akram turned to face the room: “everyone: time for us to leave. Let’s go! Let’s go!”
As Haider watched, the room became an instant flurry of personnel and equipment. The radiomen started packing up their equipment and antennae. The battlefield computers were shut down and closed. The maps on the table were rolled and swept off. Within minutes, the room was already semi-vacant. Haider put his helmet on and snapped on the chin buckle. Akram walked over after slapping a full magazine into his M-4 rifle. Haider slipped his sidearm in his thigh holster and nodded to Akram, who led the way out. Haider followed him out along with his bodyguards.
Outside, a slight fog hovered above the streets. The sky above was turning dark blue and the topmost floors of the buildings were reflecting the red-yellow sunlight. In the street below, dozens of army trucks and vehicles roared as they drove past, leaving dust hovering in the air. Haider took all this in as he stepped out of the building.
The rumble of Indian artillery to the south reminded him that this city was nearly surrounded. Only the western and northwestern roads remained in Pakistani hands. And the 6TH Armored division to the north was manning them. This unit would receive Haider’s columns as they pulled out.
“Sir! This way!”
Haider turned to see Akram waving to him across the road. He looked both ways and then ran across, following Akram as he led them down the street. They found the field-hospital next to what used to be a civilian emergency care-center. Parked ambulances occupied the streets and wounded and bloodied soldiers were being loaded on them. The wounded soldiers were being hurriedly evacuated under Haider’s orders. It was a poignant sight as the tar of the road had blood spots everywhere. Haider’s only solace was that he wasn’t leaving these men behind.
Away from these ambulances, three of Brigadier Minhas’s “ambulances” were parked. Heavily-armed soldiers stood guard nearby as Haider and Akram walked up. They found Saadat kneeling beside the nuclear device inside one of the vehicles. He got up and saluted.
Haider quickly returned the salute: “all set?”
“Yes sir,” Saadat said as he stroked his beard. “The brigadier’s men set this up and sent us the remote-detonation codes. We can detonate via the Chinese SATCOM link.”
Haider exhaled as he glanced at the nuclear device and then nodded, first to himself and then to Saadat: “Good job, captain.” He then turned to Akram: “Are we ready to leave?”
“Ready when you are, sir.”
Haider jumped off the bed of the truck and back on to the road just as the rumble of jet engines spread through the area. All soldiers and officers instinctively looked up. Of course they saw nothing in the dark-blue skies. No contrails. No silhouettes. Nothing. But the sounds were very familiar to each and every one of them. Haider turned to say something to Akram just as the first thunderous explosion ripped through the air and the shockwave knocked them down behind a wall of dust…
When he woke up, Haider found himself covered with dust. The painful ringing in his ears would not stop. He saw that he was sprawled across the road next to an overturned ambulance. Soldiers ran past, helping the wounded. He saw one soldier in front of him screaming as his legs lay crushed under the overtur
ned ambulance. But Haider couldn’t hear the screams over the ringing in his ears. It was a surreal feeling. All these years of waging war against the Hindus from behind the desk and he had never imagined them fighting back like this. He had underestimated their rage. And here and now was the price for his mistake…
“Sir!” He heard that noise and recognized it. Akram ran over and was kneeling beside him: “are you all right?”
Akram helped Haider up on to a sitting position and looked around for his helmet. It had fallen a few meters away and the chin-strap was ripped. Akram handed Haider took it shakily.
“What…?” he said and then shook his head forcefully to clear the headache. “What happened? Who got hit?”
Akram helped Haider to stand up: “Indian bombers dropped some precision munitions from high-altitude against our former command-center. We were lucky to leave when we did!”
Haider looked at Akram if he were crazy. He had been inside that building just a few minutes ago. He had known that it was possible that the Indians would triangulate his location based on all the comms chatter emanating from it. But he had expected that to take longer than it had. Perhaps he really did have nine lives?
“Major, let’s go. We have tested our luck enough!”
Akram nodded and motioned Haider to follow him towards the parked trucks forming the medical convoy. They would follow the ambulances leaving this place and hope that the Indians would let the convoy leave on humanitarian grounds. Abusing the Geneva conventions was not new to Haider. In fact, he relied upon them for survival against a vastly more powerful enemy. And today was no different.
As the convoy pulled off, they passed the street where his former command-center had been. Now it was enveloped in a dust cloud and the debris of collapsed buildings filled the street. Haider saw two M113s buried in the concrete. One of them was burning furiously. Soldiers were still pulling their comrades out of the rubble…