by David Singh
Time seemed to be crawling. Raghav looked into Balu's direction and found him already looking at him from a few yards. Despite the brewing tension, Balu threw a smile at him. Raghav returned the smile back. That moment the roar of engines was heard down the road.
Raghav spoke into the radio, 'Venkat. Alert. They are coming.' Then he held up his right hand to wave around and blew a long shrill whistle, knowing that everyone would be on alert now. Balu held the microphone in his palm just poised to speak and the amplifier in the other.
It was a convoy of seven vehicles with XUV at the third position. All of them came to a slow halt at the road block.
Balu looked at Raghav. Raghav spoke into the radio, 'hold on. Wait and watch.'
They all waited for a long half minute but nothing happened. No one stirred inside the vehicles. No one emerged out.
Raghav nodded to Balu. Balu spoke into the microphone, his raw, local voice, echoed loud and clear through the amplifier, 'Rajeshwar Karma. Come out alone with your hands up. You have ten seconds. If anyone…..' Balu paused in between. The roof top of the XUV slid open and Rajeshwar Karma emerged slowly with his hands raised up, signaling that he was ready to comply. Then he slid back into the XUV and next moment disembarked from the vehicle, onto the road.
Raghav spoke in the radio, 'Venkat. Shoot.'
Next moment, surroundings shook with a sudden, short volley of well aimed fires. Both the radials of all the vehicles on Venkat's side were rendered puncture.
'Turn left and move straight forward.' Karma followed Balu's next command. Raghav spoke into the radio again, 'Venkat. Move.' Venkat would now lead his troop through a long winding path to meet them back somewhere. Rajeshwar Karma reached in the middle of the trees when Raghav and his men surrounded him with rifles trained at him. Raghav came forward and looked at him. He didn't find even a trace of fear in his eyes. Karma had a mild smile cavourting on his lips. He looked calm and in control as if he had come to meet his long lost pals.
'Laal Salaam (red salute) Comrade.' Gangwar, code named Killer, playing RK, smirked at Raghav.
Operation Crimson Crackdown was on.
?
Vir Bhadra Singh's voice crackled off Makker's radio. 'Killer taken. Ground is all yours boys. Play hard.'
With respect to the temple ruins – expected rendezvous – being in the centre, the dry well was situated at about 9 o' clock in south, around two hundred meters far from the ruins. Down west at 6 o' clock, several meters apart from the ruined boundary of the temple, was the narrow dusty road emerging like a dead snake from among the dense jungle. The road ran ahead, narrowing down to allow only two people walk side by side. It wounded its way through the cluster of rugged mountains with their bases enveloped in jungle foliage. After twenty kilometers, it expanded into a broader rough mountainous terrain for another fifteen kilometers. Then it suddenly steeped down to a plain of a few kilometers to finally fuse into another narrow track leading its way out of the jungle up to SH-5 at the point where Karma's abduction had just happened. The jeep carrying Karma was expected to enter the jungle twenty kilometers inside and then Karma would be brought on foot to the action zone through that narrow dusty road.
At the action zone, on either side of dusty road at 6 o' clock were dense and wide patches of shrubs expanding sideways to several meters. Behind this green patch was the jungle where Raju and Chandan, with their men, were holding position. Makker had commanded them to cover and block the whole road once the Naxals accompanying Karma would enter the action zone.
At 3 o' clock i.e. north, about a kilometer ahead was Indr âvati, flowing restlessly. At 12 o' clock, in far east, behind the cluster of three mountains was Hashima mines site. Between the mountains and the action zone was a series of hillocks – a perfect place for a sniper to hold position. Malwanker was there. Samarjeet had brought him an additional set of entire combat attire and he was feeling a bit uneasy inside it being habitual of moving around half naked in the jungle for such a long period of time. The only source of delight was the semiautomatic Stoner Rifle 25 variant, designed on the specifications of CSASS: Compact Semi Automatic Sniper System - a 16 inch barrel carbine, hardly 4 kgs with an advanced flash suppresser for night operations, equipped with 30 rounds magazine and stadia metric telescopic sight. He was lying prone, under a bush – appropriately camouflaged, behind the lethal weapon which was resting on a swivel based bipod stealthily peeping over the rough rock with its muzzle poised menacingly to lash out death as and when required in the form of 7.62X51mm rounds taking the target at little above 2500 feet per sec in a range of half a kilometer.
On his left, several meters ahead, behind a rock over another hillock, was Som, holding position with another similar rifle. The positions were given so strategically by Makker that Som couldn't see Malwanker almost on his head but Malwanker could see him. Som didn't know that he was a sniper as well as, when right time would come, a target for Malwanker. From his position Malwanker could witness entire action in the action zone except for the targets that might move behind trees and dense jungle but he knew bullets could easily rip through small twigs and foliage: he only had to look for some movement behind the natural cover. The centre of action zone – the temple ruins and surroundings – was creeping with armed Naxals. Those were twenty men strolling as if in the family garden randomly to cover the surroundings of the temple.
Makker was hiding behind a huge tree, in jungle camouflage, hundred meters away from the dry well. Occasionally he was monitoring the surroundings through his binocular to look for any moving olive green cloth or a flash of brownish yellow butt of AK 47.
His wrist watch was showing 1317 – 1:17 pm – when Vir Bhadra Singh's voice had alerted him. He knew Retired Colonel was heard by everyone except Raju and his men. Reason was that Elite Five's radios were multifrequency. On one, coded Private, only Elite 5 and Malwanker could listen to each other and, on the other, coded Public, everyone, including Raju and company could communicate. Makker switched to Public frequency and repeated Vir Bhadra Singh's alert.
? The jeeps were painted green and parked below the dense shade of ancient trees, near the dusty road, adjacent to the tuft of trees, hiding Raghav and his troop. Raghav signaled a halt there and looked at Venu, 'look somewhere away.'
'Why?'
'Something is coming up that you shouldn't see.' He replied then mischief peeped into his eyes, 'or maybe you enjoy that, who knows?' Then, leaving Venu a little puzzled, he turned towards Gangwar, 'RK, remove all your clothes.'
'What?'
'Get naked. Now! Remove everything!' He signaled one of his men who, in response, threw a set of old worn out clothes at Gangwar.
'Wear this. Hurry up. I give you ten seconds.'
Gangwar began undressing. Venu turned away suppressing the smile.
'What's that you are wearing?' Balu interrupted Gangwar then commanded, 'give it to me.'
'This is my wrist band, my mother's blessed talisman. What's the harm if I carry…..'
'To hell with your mother and her talisman.' Balu came forward and twisted out the metallic wrist band off Gangwar's wrist. In normal circumstances Balu would have eaten dust before dying, neck broken, on the ground.
He examined the small rounded ornate structure on the band. It was a glass pearl shining in bright red. Balu tried some force on it and it
turned. With a renewed suspicion, on his face, he pulled the pearl off its tiny notch and raised it in front of his eyes against the sun. Then he smiled. 'Raghav bhai (bro), Bhanu dada is a genius.'
Raghav took the GPS tracker from Balu and looked at Gangwar, 'RK, a filthy politician, like you, looks ridiculous when he pulls stunts like this.'
Gangwar managed to give him a plain stare while changing into the given clothes. One man checked Gangwar's hair to pull out any other tracker hidden there and found none. Raghav tossed the GPS tracker which Venkat caught in his palm and boarded the decoy jeep. Venu, Balu, Raghav and three other men, along with Gangwar boa
rded the other jeep. Rest of the troop disappeared in the jungle.
Both the jeeps geared up and moved out into the clearing, under the unblinking stare of Cartosat's camera.
When jeep took a turn towards a different – unplanned direction, Venu asked Raghav, 'we aren't going to the temple ruins.' 'No.'
'Where then?'
'Pukka Gaon (brick village).'
'And Venkat is taking away decoy jeep….. where?'
'En route to temple ruins. The jeep is an important tool in the
trap we have created for our enemies.'
'How?'
'It is stuffed with enough explosive to blow away a multistory
house.'
? Vir Bhadra Singh sat his coffee cup down on the table top and killed the thought of lighting another cigar. Vir Bhadra Singh was using only Private frequency. He was concerned with Elite 5 only as far as communication was concerned.
He first looked at the screen not believing what was seen then, a bit confused to silently praise or curse Naxal's ingenuity, he spoke into the microphone, 'there are two jeeps. Closed. Identical. Probably same colour.' Vir Bhadra Singh described what Cartosat was feeding to the screen. Then he noticed something and his eyes widened in surprise.
'Terminator, they are taking Killer somewhere else. The other jeep, empty, is coming your way.' He said with his gaze following the red dot moving over the tiny gray rectangle of one jeep that looked creeping in the direction of action zone.
'I can see Hole.' Makker spoke, 'the green dot is moving at hundred degrees eastward. They are taking killer away from us and the other jeep is carrying his wristband. They are trying to fool us.'
'Go behind Killer.'
'Righto! VB.' Makker said then he continued, 'come in Retriever! Friend!'
Malwanker was hastily given the code name: Friend. ? Samarjeet, like others, was in perfect camo. He was across Indrâvati River. He had crossed the river through its far west end and was moving - keeping low - towards a hill at a distance, adjacent to the river. Like Makker he was also carrying GPS tracker to discover that
the green and red dots were moving in different directions, away from each other. The movement of green dot was showing that Gangwar was swiftly being taken away into farther north. They had to move quickly. He scanned the area once again through his binocular when Makker's voice called him and Malwanker into his radio.
'Yes Terminator?' He replied in suppressed tone.
On the third side, Malwanker, who was listening to them, said, 'carry on Retriever, Terminator. I am following.'
Makker said, 'Retriever, they are moving well beyond Indrâvati.
You follow up. I'm falling behind you at one kilometer distance.' 'Sure. I think, we hike under the tree line parallel to the river,
northbound. That will give us speed and cover both.'
'Good thinking Retriever. You move on. I'll soon join you.' Makker's alert voice came over, 'Friend, you check your situation around and update.'
? Malwanker climbed down from his position into the foot of the hill backwards and checked the area around very carefully. There was no one around except the silent greenery. This was probably because they are not aware about his presence. He decided to go around the hill
to check in front. Very carefully, keeping low, behind the bushes he stepped on, halting for a few moments after each step and looking around.
He reached the left flank of the hill and moved forward to reach the front side when he froze in his place, breath gone away. The twenty armed men were lined up prone, ready to shoot with their rifles, right in front of him at ten feet distance. The only respite was that they all were facing away from him looking into the direction of the action zone with their backs towards him.
If anyone would turn around on instinct I would be a dead man. He stepped backward silently to wind his way back up, behind the hill taking the reverse tour. After reaching the desired spot he spoke into the radio, 'enemy. Twenty. Below my hill. Can't see me.' He quickly whispered.
'Stay put. Don't leave your position. You are out of danger zone. Don't shoot. Keep it quiet and slow.' Makker advised.
Malwanker began climbing up the small hill again to reach back to his position.
Whom they were mistaking for Naxals were Raju's additional men in hiding which Elite 5 wasn't aware of.
?
After driving for another twenty minutes, Venkat stopped the jeep in the base of the foot hills. From this point onwards, taking a
vehicle wasn't possible. This was the place decided by Majumdar to keep the jaggery to attract the flies. This was the result of Majumdar's foresight and several years' experience that he was able to think of such a ploy to divide the enemy forces. With Gangwar's bugged wrist band in the jeep, the commandos were expected to walk straight into the trap following it up over GPS. On the other side, his men would surround and easily hunt down the ex Salwa Judum Raju – whosoever he is – and his men.
Venkat turned back to look at the pile of death dumped behind. It was a perfect mixture of Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil but it wasn't dangerous until the detonator was deployed. When he got down from the jeep, a score of armed Naxals emerged around from behind the natural hidings.
'Sukma!' Venkat called out to one of them. 'You ready?' 'Yeah.' Sukma replied, taking out the detonator.
It was a toy table clock whose alarm speaker's wire was run
through a relay to increase the decibel of the alarm's volume. When required, the clock would ring the alarm. The volume and vibration together would trigger the spark making the fuel oil catch fire. The heat would burn down Ammonium Nitrate, liberating a huge amount of instant oxygen. The immensely high pressure would result into the lethal explosion.
'We will wait for them.' Venkat explained to Sukma, 'as we see them approaching here, you will set the alarm of two minutes, set it up with the explosive in the jeep and return back. We all shall quietly leave the place. Those commandos will see the jeep from distance and will approach it up to at least a few meters. That would be enough. The alarm will initiate the detonation and…'
'…Boom!' Sukma said.
?
Samarjeet and Makker had GPS trackers but no means of viewing the jungle terrain. Vir Bhadra Singh was assisting them to navigate through the area.
The dense forest and the maze of mountain terrain was keeping the jeep - carrying Gangwar and others - well under cover, making Cartosat almost blind to track it but GPS tracker in Gangwar's thigh was giving away its position clearly as a green dot on the screen as usual, looking like a UFO moving over the dense black-and-white forest and mountains, crawling over to far north which meant that jeep was negotiating its path slowly across the rough mountainous terrain.
'Retriever!' He spoke into the microphone, 'change your course a little – to your two o' clock away from the river and move into the jungle. Guessing the jeep's course, you may catch up with it after another two kilometers up north.'
'Sure, Hole. I guess at two o' clock straight, jungle is penetrable.' Samarjeet replied.
'Nothing seems to be penetrable in this damned jungle but make
your way through otherwise you will be drained off all your energy by
the time you reach the target. We need to keep up with the sun too. It
is still around three hours to sunset.'
Vir Bhadra Singh looked at the other dot denoting Makker,
falling just a few hundred meters back, following Samarjeet. 'Terminator! Turn forty five degrees from river and go straight. It
seems a tough hike but after crossing the mountain you will catch up with Retriever.'
'Sure VB. I am on it.' Vir Bhadra Singh again looked at Gangwar's dot. Now it was creeping as slow as a snail. It looked almost static.
'Is it really moving?' Vir Bhadra Singh wondered.
Naidu reached his hand forward and double-tapped on Gangwar's dot. Coordinates appeared. After a few seconds he repeated the process. This time there were different c
oordinates. He replied, 'Yes sir, the jeep is moving very slowly.'
Then Vir Bhadra Singh turned his focus on the red dot which had stopped half way to the action zone.
'Zoom in on this up to five hundred meters.'
Sakshi tapped the keys on her keyboard. The visual on the screen gave a slight jitter, froze for a moment and then the vision dropped zooming down. The earth seemed leaping up towards Cartosat and after a while they could see the tree tops, leaves dancing in merriment as air rustled through them.
'Give me a search roll around. Very slow.' Continuous key taps were heard on Sakshi's keyboard. The view moved in a combination of scroll and turn.
'Hold on.'
Sakshi stopped. View went static.
'Did I see a movement there?'
Naidu bent over the control panel and peered into the screen. 'I don't see anything moving.' 'Carry on.' Vir Bhadra Singh said.
Another minute passed in looking around the area.
'Zoom out back.' Finally Vir Bhadra Singh said.
Sakshi did.
'There could be a possibility,' Vir Bhadra Singh murmured thoughtfully, 'that these bastards could have thought of using this GPS signal as a trap for us, however, useless because my boys have no concern with this stray signal now.'
'How come?'
'An ambush or possibly a death trap. The jeep could be a VBIED.' 'VBIED?'
'Vehicle Bourne Improvised Explosive Device.'
? The two men at the leg of inverted V formation of their position got signal from Chandan to check around. One of them, Ajith, took a quick look around and saw nothing. Keeping his cover up behind the bushes he moved backwards carefully checking with his strained eyes
and ears to catch any out of place movement or any unwanted noise. Nothing. He moved another ten yards further when he saw them. Being a Naxal himself he knew the tactic. They were surrounding them slowly with a curved row of armed men, alternatively closing in a few feet and pausing.