Operation Deep Strike

by Rahul Badami

  “Thanks Eagle. But I am not sure he will be able to do anything. We are on our own.”

  “I don't like surprises.” Armaan heard Tahir speak behind him as he and Baldev were marched towards the barracks. “So please don't spring one on me. It will be a waste of time.”

  Tahir hadn't even bothered to handcuff him. Maybe he was overconfident about his prowess and skill, Armaan thought. Though so far, Tahir appeared to read the situation well. Armaan and Baldev were defenceless and they were being escorted by four armed guards and the giant Tahir. He evaluated his possibilities and quickly came to the conclusion that they were at a disadvantage.

  Armaan shrugged, “The surprise element has been from your side. Currently my predicament is that of a mouse trapped in a cage guarded by cats. I will have to wait for the right opportunity to escape.”

  “Good that you see it that way.” Tahir said, “I know you can't escape. Do me a favour, when you find that opportunity to escape, inform me first so that I can tell you if it will succeed or not.”

  “That makes sense.”

  They walked up the steps to the barracks. Tahir continued talking, “This job is so mundane and routine. Thank you for spicing up my day. I'll be honest; I have not yet decided what to do with you gentlemen. Till the time I decide, you will be my guest. We Pakistanis are famous for our hospitality.”

  “Thanks. I look forward to see what you’ve to offer.”

  Tahir hailed one of the men in the barracks. The man walked swiftly towards them. “Sir?” he asked.

  “Keep a close eye on these gentlemen. They will be spending time in your quarter. Make sure their needs are catered for.” Tahir turned to Armaan, “You both must be hungry. I will ask the chef if he can cook something unique for our guests.” Thus saying, Tahir left them.

  “This way, sirs.”

  Armaan and Baldev followed their new escort to his quarter; two guards were still with them. He entered the room. It looked like a typical barrack room, except that there was only one bunk bed in the room instead of the four bunks they saw in other rooms on the way. The person appeared to be the leader of the soldiers.

  Apart from the bunk bed, there was a rudimentary desk and two chairs in the room. The room was frugal and clean.

  “Make yourselves comfortable.”

  Armaan shrugged, he wasn't sure what fate held in store for them. He walked in the room and sat on the bed, all the while looking for points of opportunity within the room.

  There were none.

  The room was made up of the four walls and the ceiling; it had no other connecting doors or a place to hide in. The only break in the wall was a small window at one end. It was barred with thick iron bars. Armaan walked up to the window. Beyond the window, he could see a guard, arms at the ready staring at him. Tahir had done his homework well. He turned his gaze back inside the room. The owner of the room looked at him. He stood in the doorway casting an intent eye on Baldev and Armaan. The two guards flanked him, making no indication that they were to leave.

  Armaan sighed. He was under house arrest.

  Tahir walked across the length of his office deep in thought. He reached the window and looked out at the scenery. It was just as beautiful as it had been in the morning. There was something about the snow-capped mountains that seemed to soothe the nerves.

  But today Tahir wasn’t feeling the magic. He should have felt exulted, he told himself. The plan had worked perfectly and flawlessly and the Indians were now under custody. But he wasn’t happy. He realized he hadn’t thought farther ahead. He had only been concerned with capturing them.

  Now that he had captured them, an apprehension started to get hold of him. So far, he hadn’t let anyone in his plans within the facility or with his supervisors in Rawalpindi, but now he realized that the plan could backfire upon him.

  When he had been transferred to this facility, there had been voices within the Army fraternity that had called him a traitor for questioning the ISI. Tahir bristled with rage. A traitor? Him? There were few men who had served their nation so faithfully over so many years. Even fewer who had risen through the ranks of a Colonel by spilling their blood in numerous battles against the Indians and the terrorists.

  How dare they question his love for Pakistan? These people fit only for bootlicking were now labelling him as a worthless traitor. After his wife’s death, he had been driven to work by only one desire, to clear his name and get back the dignity he had lost.

  Tahir had carefully plotted the trap and the Indians had walked right into the trap. This was his chance at redemption. He had come back to his office to make the call to his supervisors to give them the good news. Their ‘worthless traitor’ had captured two Indian spies on his own.

  But he had stopped himself as a possibility rankled in his mind.

  What if the ISI came in between and took over his trophy? Tahir was familiar with the modus operandi of the ISI over the years. He had experienced enough incidents where the ISI would meddle into Army and police detainees under the garb of national security and would whisk the prisoners away. In a significant number of cases, the prisoners were never heard about again. Probably killed or incarcerated in a dank cell known only to them.

  The ISI would jump up at the opportunity to interrogate the Indian spies. They wouldn’t bother crediting him for the capture. His honour would not be redeemed.

  Tahir stopped pacing and looked out of the window at the barracks that held the Indian spies. A germ of an idea was forming in his mind. There was only one way he could claim the capture in his name without the opportunistic ISI fanatics getting in his way. The only way he would be able to regain his dignity would be if the ISI couldn’t get any mileage out of the spies. He walked behind his desk and pulled out the drawer. Inside was his trusty handgun. The idea had now completely formed in his head. He cocked the safety back on the handgun and smiled.

  The ISI would have no use of the Indians if they were dead. Dead people couldn’t be imprisoned or tortured. The dead were of no use to the ISI.

  But the dead spies would prove most useful in clearing his name. He could picture the news already. Legendary Colonel shoots two spies as they try to infiltrate his facility. Tahir pocketed the handgun and exited his office. A few minutes earlier he had been unsure of what to do with the Indians. Now he knew their fate.

  The Indians would have to die.

  And he would redeem himself by claiming their kill.

  Chapter 35

  “What are our options, One?” Armaan heard Roshan’s voice in his ear.

  Armaan looked through the barred window at the gate. There was freedom, only two hundred metres away. But between him and the gate stood numerous guards ready to gun him down. He looked at the sentry guarding the window. He stared unwaveringly at Armaan, as if telling him to get away from the window. Armaan turned and looked at the door. The door was open, but three men guarded it, again staring at him. He knew that if he walked in the direction of the door, the guards would stiffen and get ready to shoot him. He lingered a moment longer near the door and then sat down on the bed.

  “You guys stay put. Do not attempt to rescue me. That’s an order.” He spoke in a low voice looking at Baldev. The guards at the door would mistake him for speaking with Baldev.

  “Acknowledged. But how are you going to get out of there?”

  “I am not sure. I am looking for chinks in the armour, and so far I don’t see any. There are hordes of guards within the barracks as well as outside. Our chances of survival are in single digits.”

  Baldev spoke, “I think we have reached the end of the proverbial tether. This looks to be our swansong.”

  Armaan placed a hand on his shoulder, “There is no need to be pessimistic. We have been in bad situations over the years. Somehow, we always survived.”

  “Yes, you had your rules and because of them, we never failed in any of our missions. What do you think of our situation now?”

  “I ignored my rule number one.�
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  Roshan asked, “I have been meaning to ask you, what is rule number one?”

  “Never underestimate the enemy. Your perception of your enemy is your weakness. Whether you underestimate an enemy to be weak, or believe it to be strong; in both cases, they are perceptions and will lead to an incorrect decision chain.”

  Baldev nodded, “Yes, we never imagined that Ijaz Ibrahim was being fed the wrong information all the time. I think he will be crushed when he finds out the truth. He was taken for a ride for so long.”

  “Before, we can warn him, we need to get out of here. So far I don’t see a route out. This Tahir is more dangerous than the others. He hasn’t even handcuffed us, as if he is flaunting his strength and the impregnability of this place.”

  “I think we should admit,” Baldev said, “that our situation is hopeless. If we are lucky, we will get a quick death. If not, it will be months of torture and pain in our destiny. I vote for making a suicidal escape bid. At least we will die quickly. Who’s with me?”

  Armaan said, “I am with you, but it’s the last option we should consider. Our mission is not yet done. Tahir knows that we have tampered the missiles. He says he will undo our sabotage attempt. We will leave this place only when we are sure that our mission objectives are complete.”

  Roshan said, “How can you be thinking of the mission when your life is at stake? You are seriously not thinking of going inside the facility again?”

  “I will go there if I have an opportunity. As far as I know only Tahir knows that we have sabotaged the missiles. He will have to be killed before he tells anyone.”

  “So what’s the plan again?”

  “No plan. I will just have to wing it. Like Baldev said, it is a suicidal mission.”

  Armaan walked over to the window and took a good look at the bars and the metal framework. It was solid and meant for durability. He grabbed the bars and tugged at them. The guard beyond the window gave a terse shout.

  “You! Stay inside. Don’t come near the window.”

  “Is that guard pestering you?” Roshan asked Armaan.”He is in my sights. Should I take him out?”

  Armaan smiled involuntarily at Roshan’s offer. “No. One guard won’t make a difference. Besides we will only attract other guards who will wonder how he was killed. It will make things worse for us.”

  “There’s some commotion going on at the gate,” Hitesh interrupted.

  What? Armaan wondered. He looked in the distance at the gate. Sure enough, he could hear some of the guards shouting and moving in the direction of the gate.

  Boom!

  The sound of a thunderous explosion rocked Armaan’s world. He looked in disbelief as a powerful bomb exploded in front of the gate. A second later, the shockwave hit him. The incredible energy pent up inside the bomb knocked him off his feet, and he tumbled to the floor, his forehead and cheeks hot with the heat of the explosion, as the warm air swooshed through the windows. A ringing sound filled his ears drowning all other sounds. He saw Baldev looking over him, his lips were shouting something, but Armaan couldn’t hear anything other than the ringing sound, and in a corner of his mind, he realized that the shockwave had caused temporary deafness.

  A couple of seconds later the ringing in his ears ceased, and he heard disjointed words and shouts stream into his consciousness.

  “…exploded in front of the gate.” Armaan heard Hitesh’s words through the earpiece. Hitesh had an eagle eye view of the place. He should have seen what happened. He craned his neck towards the door. Two of the men had left, and only one guard remained, but instead of the relaxed position earlier, he had trained his gun directly upon them. Armaan and Baldev were the outsiders in the facility and would be the first under suspicion.

  But what had really happened at the gate?

  Armaan turned his head away so that the guard wouldn’t see him speak. “Hitesh, what happened? Tell me.”

  “A man ran in. The guards gave him a warning, but by that time he had reached the gate. He blew himself up. It was a suicide bomber. The gate got mangled due to the force of the explosion. I see multiple guards down in front of the entrance. Other guards are converging onto the gate. They are assessing who is dead and who is wounded. They seem to have a lot of work on their hands. It seems to be a terrorist attack. Terrorists have tried to attack military sites before this. I remember the previous attempt at the Wah ordinance factory –”

  Armaan digested the information Hitesh had provided. He remembered the suicide bomber attacks on Wah, as well as other locations. The terrorists selected such locations for their high profile attention that they got. He knew that the terrorists would know that attacking a closely guarded military facility was ultimately going to fail, but they still did it to highlight that no place in Pakistan was safe from them.

  Armaan was lost in his thoughts when he felt a hand grab his shoulder. “Get up.”

  He saw that it was the soldier guarding them. He was accompanied by Tahir. Tahir looked quite composed considering that a horrific attack had just happened in his facility. The only difference was that he was no longer smiling. His words to Armaan were also brief.

  “I will ask only once. Who is behind this attack?”

  “I have nothing to do with this. It looks to be a suicide bomber.”

  Tahir pulled out his handgun. “Don’t play games with me. You two come in, and a few minutes later my men die in a bomb explosion. I don’t believe in coincidences.”

  “I repeat, we have nothing to do with this. Besides blowing up things is not our style. I think you know that.”

  Tahir was about to say something when another explosion rocked the room they were in. This one seemed to be of a lower intensity but seemed to be closer. Armaan walked over to the window and looked outside. Smoke billowed in the parking next to the gate. A car had been blown up. The soldiers who had converged on the entrance were screaming shouts.

  Did another terrorist get inside the facility? Armaan wondered when he saw an unexpected sight.

  A dozen streams of traces streaked from the top of the western mountain. The white streams whizzed in a straight line leaving a white line of smoke behind them that was barely visible against the snow-capped mountains. The traces seemed harmless till they landed all around the entrance where the soldiers were.

  A cacophony of explosions erupted as the streams hit the tarmac, pulverising steel and ripping flesh in its wake. It rained death. He watched the soldiers run helter-skelter; racing across the compound desperate to shelter them from the overhead onslaught. One of the streams landed right atop a soldier and tore him to shreds.

  “RPGs! Take cover.” He heard one of the soldiers outside scream.

  Armaan looked high up in the mountains where the traces had originated from and could see small moving specs. The terrorists were ensconced in the mountains and used Rocket Propelled Grenades on the soldiers below. Their strategy had been effective. Start with one explosion by a suicide bomber in front of the gate killing a few. When other soldiers come in to help the wounded, pound them with the RPGs.

  “There are hostiles in the mountains.” Armaan heard Tahir shouting behind him. Tahir had also watched his men routed by the multiple RPG explosions. More soldiers were rushing in the compound; they had watched their brothers in arms die and immediately opened fire at the intruders in the mountains.

  Another explosion was heard; another suicide bomber had raced up to the gate and blew himself up. A moment later the loud staccato of machine gun fire sounded. Armaan looked through the window; he could see the soldiers moving towards the gate firing at someone beyond. A loud siren reverberated through the area. Shouts were heard and orders were issued.

  The second in command rushed in the room, “Colonel, we have had two attacks on the gate. The gate is bombed out. A handful of terrorists are engaging with our men outside the perimeter. We have had multiple casualties due to the RPG assault from the mountain. An alert has been sounded. Our guards from inside the faci
lity and the reserves in the barracks are on their way to provide support. Based on the attack pattern, it appears to be a full-fledged terrorist attack.”

  The colonel barked, “We will grant these scum their death wish. They will know the force of the army.” He turned towards Armaan and said, “I’ll deal with you later.”

  Tahir left the room.

  Tahir rushed outside and saw the barricades around the facility swarming with his soldiers taking cover against the barrage of RPGs. He looked up. He could see the terrorists spread out in a one-eighty degree arc high up in the mountains. Every other minute, an RPG was being launched at the facility from a random point on the mountain. The height gave the terrorists a tactical advantage, and his men were being caught in the cross-fire.

  We are completely exposed.

  “Target the RPGs.” The second-in-command shouted.

  The men were already doing that. The challenge was that the terrorists were deeply ensconced in their positions giving the soldiers a small target. And they had spread out wide enough to minimize their casualties.

  There was only one other group apart from the Al-Qaeda that could organize such an attack.

  It’s the bloody Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan!

  He watched his men targeting the terrorists. They were well concealed making it difficult for his men to kill them. The kills were few and far between. But his men were putting on a brave fight. The RPGs relentlessly pounded the facility, injuring the soldiers and killing a few. Smoke billowed all over the place.

  “Keep firing. We will murder these dogs today.” The second-in-command exhorted.

  “No, stop firing.” Tahir ordered.

  “Why?”

  “Because, this is exactly what they want. Don't you understand we are playing into their hands? They will wait out in the mountains till our ammunition is depleted, and then come down and launch a frontal attack.”

  “But, the RPGs are killing our men.”

  “That's because we are out here in the open. Do we really need to be out here? We have four underground levels that can withstand heavy artillery. Two can play this game. Let us make them sweat.”