Operation ‘Fox-Hunt’

by Siddhartha Thorat

  “Aayaz Bhai! It’s so good to see you…” Samsher exclaimed as he got into the car.

  “And you too Samsher. Did you have a good journey? I can never imagine travelling on a boat like this. I get sick just looking at it in the port.”

  Sanjay smiled, “One does what one must Aayaz bhai! So is my transport ready?”

  Aayaz laughed loudly, “I am your transport. We are driving to the border. My brother Noora and his men are crossing over tomorrow at dawn, and we must reach them by 4.00 am. There are some Pakistani clothes in the back. You better change into them now.”

  At the crack of dawn, Samsher and Noora’s merry band of smugglers crossed into Pakistani territory. A chill went down Samsher’s spine. It was his first time in the hornets’ nest.

  It was in the late afternoon that Noora dropped him on the outskirts of Gwadar. Samsher reached into his kameez, a loose Pakistani tunic, and took out a cell phone, dialled a number from memory and bought a cup of tea and a cigarette at a small kiosk. A few minutes later, a motorcyclist on an old Honda 100cc bike stopped near him and said, “The clouds seem to be dense today.”

  Samsher smiled and answered, “Yes they are dense because of the high temperatures,” the passwords exchanged and identities established. The man shook hands with Samsher and they rode away.

  In less than thirty minutes, he was in a basement of a farmhouse owned by a local chieftain, ‘the sardar’ who hated the Pakistanis for taking over his land for a military cantonment. The basement was lit by two bulbs hanging from the roof. The five Balochs had arrived the earlier night from Karachi. They were already checking out the weapons, a mix of various vintages of AK47s and its clones.

  “Our target is a power substation used by the Chinese construction firm to run machines for the port. We have to destroy it as a lesson to occupiers, Are you ready!?”

  The men answered together “Inshallaha!”

  They discussed the plan late into the night; the substation was in its own compound, the nearest military facility was ten kilometres away and the local FC troops didn’t venture out after dark. Samsher selected an AK 47, a dependable looking one, and three magazines. He fired them off into a target built into the basement.

  At dawn all the men went to sleep. The attack was planned at 2100 hrs that night. The afternoon consisted of a once over with each of the fighters running over their roles and the support team of local BNF. The men were code named Alfa, Beta, Charlie, Zeta, Duke and Tango, the last being Samsher’s.

  The plan called for the team to go in, fix explosives and take care of any personnel present at the target while the BNF fighters would protect the parameter and take care of the guardhouse.

  At 1930hrs, Samsher called his boss in Kabul, “Well, Samsher, we got some fresh updates from the target. Yesterday afternoon, two Chinese military engineers have moved in to correct some fault and the cell phone records show they are still there,” his boss informed him.

  “Does that mean more guards?” Samsher asked.

  “There are two extra armed FC troopers, so now you have two more armed personnel on ground.”

  Samsher disconnected the call and informed his men. Post a light dinner, the attackers climbed into the two Toyota pickups. Five team members in one and the five BNF men in another. Samsher sat in the cab with a cache of explosives which BNF had supplied. He checked his watch, it was 2045hrs. The pickups drove out of the farm house and turned into the night towards their target.

  The target was isolated and included a substation housing the machinery and a small outhouse with living quarters for five people. The entire substation was encircled by a chain linked fence with a single gate. As per intelligence, there were seven people today: two guards, two FC body guards for the Chinese and one caretaker and the two Chinese men, of course.

  The vehicles were parked behind a rocky outcrop and the men coveredthe last 500 metres on foot. The BNF rebels set up a parameter and staked the guardhouse. Alfa and Delta went ahead and cut the telephone lines.

  “Surprise will be our primary protection. Charlie and I will cut a hole in the chain link fence. We rush in and set up the explosives and then disappear. We all know our target points? Right?”

  “Right!” pat came the reply.

  “Let’s go!”

  “Aziz, look, the fence is shaking,” the guard at the gate said to another and as he moved out to investigate a knife whizzed through the air and struck him in the throat. Aziz picked up his HK submachine and shot blindly into the night, a single shot rang out from the other side and stopped that.

  “Radio for help, Razdan, we are under attack. Mr Chen, Mr Wu, hide under the bunk and Rehman, switch off the lights!” The efficient FC Sergeant bellowed as he grabbed his rifle and took position near the window.

  “Shit,” muttered Sanjay as a volley of shots thudded into the ground near where he and the men were entering the target.

  The men spread out and traded shots with the two FC guards shooting from the window.

  “Red alert! Alert! Kussum Substation under attack; map coordinates 28:27, all forces in vicinity identify yourself and respond.” The radio crackled at the fighting patrol of Zarrar company, the elite counter terrorist force of SSG. The unit was on an area domination exercise when they received the radio signal.

  “Oh shit, we are only seven kilometres west of them. Let’s go.” Major Shezad shouted to his troopers, the Quick Reaction Team on the spot. The ten men ran towards their Toyota Jeeps. They headed out into the night in direction of the Kussum Substation. The 4X4s bounded across the terrain towards the substation. It took them less than ten minutes to reach within earshot of the firing. Shezad motioned the jeeps to stop and they formed into three men teams. They left a guard on the jeeps, a disgruntled greenhorn.

  Shezad directed his men to approach the facility from two directions. As they neared their targets, they could see muzzle flashes from two points. He gestured two teams to move towards the compound with him and the third to approach the muzzle flashes from the attackers on the parameter.

  Realising that his men were pinned down and further movement was restricted, Samsher decided to knock out the resistance. He sent out a signal to the BNF fighters that let loose a volley of rockets on the target. Using the crash and din of rockets as a cover, he moved to the window from which the concentrated fire originated. The men inside had dived for cover as rockets hit the structure. Sanjay lobbed in two grenades and the firing stopped, permanently. He signalled the fighters to stop firing the rockets and lobbed in the last of his grenades into the structure.

  The rocket fire had destroyed most of the substation and he asked his men to set off the explosives and retreat.

  Shezad saw the substation blow up and clenched his teeth.

  “Don’t allow the fucking bastards to escape; they must pay with their lives.”

  He could see the outcrop of rocks in the glow of the explosions and he could see the pickups. He decided to field his teams in the path of the retreating marauders.

  His first team had already made contact with the BNF fighters on parameter and was trading fire with them. Samsher heard and recognised that there was a new weapon system involved in the combat zone. “Spread out and head towards the vehicles. It looks like the Pakistanis have got reinforcements,” he ordered his men.

  As the fighters started to head back, a volley of shots brought down Delta, one of the members of his team. Samsher asked his men to lie flat on the ground and use the small rocks as a cover as he frantically scanned the night ahead. He and his men were outlined against the ground because of the blazing substation behind them. The only cover they had was an outcrop of small rocks they had hidden behind and the enemy was in the dark, invisible, except for the muzzle flashes of his weapons. He took a stone and threw it forward to his left. A volley of shots responded. He knew the position of four of his opponents.

  “Stop shooting at shadows, you fools! They are trying to find us in the dark. Don’t shoot unless yo
u see them,” Shezad whispered angrily to his men.

  Samsher evaluated his position. He had lost one man. There were at least five men on the other side. The muzzle flashes had indicated that. They too were lying down doggo on the ground waiting for him to make a mistake. Unlike for him; time was on their side.

  The pickups were three hundred metres away and the thin line of commandos was the only obstacle between them.

  Behind them the BNF men were held at a stalemate by the three commandos. They had been backed into a space behind the guardhouse and the SSG men had taken cover behind small boulders. Neither side could leave the cover and move ahead without risking being shot.

  Shezad realised that he and his men had the upper hand and that reinforcements would be on their way. He didn’t want to risk that lives of his men in a foolhardy manoeuvre. At that moment he saw a figure move in the darkness about 200 yards ahead. He let off a single shot from his FN P90. The figure moved back behind the rock, apparently scared.

  Samsher turned to his men and whispered to them their orders. Like all Balochs in the area, they were wearing turbans. Each man took of his turban and stuck it to the end of his gun and at the designated moment, alternately two men struck up their turbans above the rocks.

  Shezad’s men saw their targets and fired at the exposed heads of the enemy. Almost immediately the turbans slipped back behind the rocks, then another pair appeared at the extreme corner of the line. Again Shezad’s men fired a volley of shots.

  Samsher had used the distraction to crawl ahead towards the commando closest to him and farthest from rest of his team. The man was distracted by the firing down his line and didn’t see the agent creep up on his flank.

  Samsher used his knife to cut the jugular of the SSG trooper he had sneaked upon. Since he had left his AK behind the rocks, he commandeered the FN P90 of the dead man and crawled towards the pick-up. The mounted machine gun in the pick-up would tilt the balance in his favour.

  Shezad realised something was wrong by the time the turbans appeared for the third time. He was sure he had put a bullet into that particular turban. And then he realised it. He warned his men of the trick, strapped his FN to his back and asked them to give him cover fire as he crawled on his belly towards the rocks with a grenade and a Glock 9MM pistol in his hands. The Balochs, on the other hand had started shooting back in fits at their opponents. None noticed the cat-like figure approaching them from their left flank. Shezad threw a grenade and blazed away with his Glock. Two of the Balochs died in the blast and one was hit by the bullets from the Glock. The last one cowered behind the boulder where he was cornered.

  Samsher heard the grenade blast as he disengaged the machine gun from the pick-up. Apparently the commandos had decided to attack before he had played his hand. Enraged, he ran back with the machine gun blazing away at where he knew the commandos were.

  Shezad’s men, believing that the battle was over had stood up to close in and finish the surviving Baloch when a withering hail of bullets from the machine gun cut them down.

  Shezad used his cover behind the rocks and fired at the attacker but a hail of bullets forced him to take cover. And then the firing stopped as abruptly as it had begun. And then Shezad heard a roar of motor engine receding into distance. He looked around and saw that the Baloch he was angling to capture alive had disappeared.

  Samsher saw Charlie crawl under the fire towards him; he decided to give another burst at the position from which Shezad was firing so Charlie could run back. Knowing that reinforcements would be around soon, he dropped the MG and with Charlie, high tailed back to the farm house.

  Shezad, realising that the man firing at him had escaped, checked his men.

  “All dead!” he cried in anguish.

  But he didn’t have time to mourn as his third team was still trading shots with the rebels at the guardhouse. He unbuckled his FN P90 and purposefully strode in the direction of the firing. After taking in the lay of the ground, he doubled back to the hole cut in the chain link by Samsher and his men. Taking cover of the debris, he reached as close to the guardhouse from inside the substation as possible and mechanically picked his targets. In five minutes, all the four Balochs were dead. His men, pinned down in a stalemate, walked out from behind under their scanty cover and cheered. The attack had cost him four dead men and two wounded; four, including the sentry at the jeeps, had survived. But also dead were the guards and the Chinese military engineers in mufti. How he wished he had captured the rebellious scum and how he would have personally liked to hang them from the nearest tree. The roar of helicopter engines from two Bell Huey helicopters bringing in reinforcements broke his thoughts.

  At a base in the mountains where he and the remaining Balochs had fled, abandoning the farm house, Samsher had heard that only one of the BNF fighters had escaped from the fire fight that night.

  “Hey Samsher, look what I found in the pick-up, a commando gun. You must have got it from the SSG men.” Charlie held up a FN P90. Samsher took it and shook his head wistfully. “Too many good men died. We could have planned it better.”

  “It’s okay, Samsher. It’s the fortunes of war, and we did destroy a unit of SSG. That counts for something in my book. These animals have been hounding us for some time now,” retorted the BNF leader. “Tomorrow you begin your journey to the Afghan frontier and take your prize with you,” he said smiling now, his yellow rotting teeth fully visible.

  “Will you find out and let me know the name of the man who led the commandos, Khan saab?” He asked the elder Baloch.

  “Before you leave Baluchistan, my son, I will have enquires made. I will have the name messaged to your guide on your way to Afghanistan. Go in peace now.”

  It took Samsher and the caravan five days to get back to the Afghan frontier. As he crossed into Afghanistan, cradling his captured FN P90, he asked his Baloch escort commander,

  “Did anyone find out the name of the man who led the Pakistani unit at the substation?”

  The man looked around and whispered, “Shezad, Shezad Khan. His men call him the Mountain Fox, a commando officer, he has destroyed many of our camps. If he falls into our hand, we will show no mercy.”

  On returning to India, Sanjay had looked the name up. That was years ago and he had wished then for a chance to avenge his Balochs.

  11

  Aviation Research Centre (ARC), Delhi: 0900 hours

  Two senior ARC officers from the cartography department along with an Air Force specialist studied the satellite images from an Indian remote-sensing satellite. The pictures were of about one metre resolution. They were presenting them to Sanjay.

  “I am sure it’s not a permanent structure; it was not there three weeks back. It’s a mock-up,” the specialist said. The ARC technicians enhanced the picture and flashed a part of the structure.

  “It looks like a mock-up of an airport building. You can easily make that out,” he continued.

  “Is it a random mock-up?” Sanjay queried.

  “We have no way of knowing. What we can do is take the key parameters, model it into the programmer and then match it with all the civilian airports in India and Afghanistan with the same parameters and see which the closest matches are,” the ISRO officer offered.

  “How much time will it take for you to close this?”

  “Two days, maybe three… not longer.”

  “Fine, get down to it,” Sanjay nodded his thanks at the RAW officer and left for his office.

  National Intelligence Agency (NIA) HQ, New Delhi, India, 10 December: 1000 hours

  Dubey opened the meeting; there were two people from each intelligence unit: the head of the unit and the investigation officer. The NSA had also decided to attend after he had been briefed by the NIA about the direction in which the investigations were going.

  “We have compiled reports from all your investigations over the last two weeks. What we can now deduce with some confidence is an outline of a major terror attack sponsored by the highest
levels in the Pakistani establishment. We have concluded this over the last few weeks’ movement of strategic fighter squadrons and land forces across the border. They are preparing for a heightened defence posture. The last input is that two strategic forces missile units with HAFT II missiles have been moved into the Punjab sector. While the details are still being investigated, let me summarise the situation. A team of militants led by a serving Pakistani military officer has entered India last month. We have reason to believe that the team has been trained by the SSW, a PAF special unit. This leads us to conclude that the attack is either on an air installation or an airfield. We also have an indication from a training facility photographed through a satellite picture that the target is likely to be a civilian airfield. The experts are working right now to narrow down the structure to more well-defined input. We have the pictures of some members of the team that trained at the Sargodha airfield and some members of the team that entered from the valley. We are sure that both the teams are different as they were in Sargodha and POK in the same time frame. We know one has entered India from Kashmir and is led by this Major Shezad. What we don’t know is the Sargodha team’s entry or recent status. We have entered the photographs of the suspects into CCTV scanners’ database, so if they show up in front of any camera in sensitive locations including airports, railway stations, etc., we will get an alert. We have attached to the Army HQ two officers who have met the Pakistani officer and can recognise him. They will remain here until otherwise advised. Our challenge is now to find the location of both the groups and neutralise them and also identify and secure their objective.”

  The NSA addressed the meeting, “I have already informed the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Defence Minister regarding the situation. The PM is keen that we neutralise the threat within our border and not allow the Pakistani establishment to hoodwink both their own people and the US by using our aggressive stance as a fig leaf.”