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COVER STORY: WAR ON TERRORISM
The War Begins...
With Pakistan continuing to sponsor cross-border terrorism
and India's patience running thin, the two neighbours, historical enemies,
are dangerously close to war. Defence expert Manvendra Singh unfolds an
imaginary scenario of India launching military strikes at Pakistan-run
terrorist training camps across the Line of Control.
Gentlemen, we are
not dealing with a Lebanon, so this has to be short, sharp and selective.
You are well aware of the operational environment facing us, so the action
has to be quick. The strikes will need to be punitive. You are all aware
of the targets to be struck, so come back to me with your plans and requirements.
One last thing, before you leave gentlemen, remember your countrymen are
with you. We are launching these strikes because this is what they ask
of us after more than a decade of restraint."
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SIACHEN CALLING: Fernandes (centre) gears up for 'war' at
the icy heights
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Simple words, straight words and spoken in his
inimitable manner by Lt-General Rustom K. Nanavaty, commander-in-chief
of the Army's Northern Command. The Gurkha officer spoke softly, as he
always does, and firmly, as is his personality. The hero of Siachen and
Baramulla was addressing his corps commanders about strikes at terrorist
training camps across the Line of Control. Facing him was more than a
hundred years worth of combined military service in the form of Lt-General
Arjun Ray of 14 Corps, Lt-General John Mukherjee of 15 Corps and Lt-General
J.B.S. Yadava of 16 Corps.
After much consideration, and years of leashed
national fury, the Indian Government had determined that restraint was
no longer a virtue when confronting a relentless terrorist campaign in
Jammu and Kashmir. "Ruthless" was the qualified label used by
Defence Minister George Fernandes on his return to South Block. And it
was from the Operations Room in South Block that orders went out to the
Northern Army Commander to implement Indian people's desire. Lt-General
Nanavaty had flown to Delhi the day before to receive his operational
orders, and now he was issuing the instructions to his three Corps commanders.
They didn't seem surprised-in fact, the response was one that almost suggested
a foreknowledge of what was to come from this meeting. The selection of
targets and scale of operations now rested on these three men's shoulders.
Intelligence reports had confirmed that the
ISI was thinning down the camps, to escape both Indian pre-emptive strikes
as well as the prying eyes of American surveillance aircraft. Those camps
that could be moved were dismantled, and in its efforts to hide the evidence
the ISI removed all boards that indicated any affiliation to a terrorist
organisation. Where the board once read Al-Badr, it now had the name of
a school.
"Paani ubal gaya hai (the water has boiled),"
was the short message on the telephone, although the line was secure from
interception. That was all Lt-General Nanavaty had been waiting for. For
that was the message which conveyed the launch of operations.
It was supposed to be a moonless night, so Naik
Lal Hussein of the Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry could not at first
come to terms with the flashes in the sky. Were they one of those frequent
and wicked local storms or were they the tell-tale flames of artillery
fire? he wondered. How does it matter anyway, he shrugged away the doubts,
for both were expected tonight. Sitting in the meagre shadow of a rock-face,
and one that also doubled as a forming-up-point, Naik Hussein pulled in
the section that he was commanding. The Line of Control lay barely a whisper
away, and this was to be the last time the section would speak to each
other until they approached the designated target-the Lashkar-e-Toiba
camp in Nikial. He waited for the hands on his watch dial to read 0100
hrs. After that he wouldn't need to wait for orders, for they wouldn't
be coming. There was to be complete radio silence, under all circumstances,
until the target was sighted.
There had been a continuous monitoring of the
targets during the days prior to the launch of the operations by sources
on the ground as well as "eyes" in the skies. The skies were
now overcome by emotion as artillery competed with thunder. Man contested
with man as nature unleashed its own fury and energies. As the hands read
0100 hrs, Naik Hussein clutched his INSAS 5.56-mm assault rifle, patted
his magazine pouch, said a prayer and was gone into the darkness over
the Line of Control. At that time, across the 15 and 16 Corps sectors
of the undulating Line, bodies of men remembered their gods as they carefully
made their way into enemy-held land. Gurkhas, Grenadiers, Marathas, Sikhs,
Jats, Dogras, Mahars, Rajputs and Madrasis.
Field guns of the artillery had been busy since
the early part of the night, 105-mm, 130-mm and 155-mm-sized rounds pounding
away at Pakistani positions. Laser-guided bombs pulverised bunker after
bunker as the foot-soldiers made their way, skirting a post here, or a
hamlet there, soaked to the bone but warmed by adrenalin. It was a night
when even the village dogs wouldn't bark at any moving shadow. Once safely
past the Pakistani posts, each section made its way faster, owing that
pace as much to a determination as to the accuracy of the hand-held Global
Positioning Sets that guided them. By first light they were to be within
striking distance of the camps-Nikial for Naik Hussein, but Neelam Valley,
Lipa Valley, Muzaffarabad, Chakothi, Bagh, Rawalakot, Kahuta, Hajira,
Kotli, Mirpur, Mangla and Khuiratta for the other units.
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