Possible Indian Military Scenarios - Part II

Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

I have missed a lot, so dont know whats been happening. but heres what
I managed to write up during my long absense. its quite difficult getting
a reliable inet cafe in my city. pardon the very poor formatting as I copied it from a txt file ( I find maximising the IE to its full window size fixes
some of the line wraps for me)

I will have better (corporate) internet access from next month but
expect to maintain a low profile until I settle down properly and find
acco etc. in blore.



Operation Black Raven
=====================

Guwahati airbase has a village almost abutting the western wall of the
facility. Used to pairs of Flankers going off on training sorties all through
the night, its residents were however rudely awakened by the muted thunder
of *dozens* of Lyulka-saturn engines at 2:00AM. something was different tonight
but nobody knew what, so after murmuring for a few moments people drifted
back to sleep, tired mothers patting and shushing their infants disturbed by
the noise. the village dogs barked and registered their protest as usual.

****

Orders direct from DG air operations had arrived at the Base CO's office
by personal courier at 6:00PM. he had read it twice, then per the letter itself
burned its contents and ground out the ashes. First he had a heart to heart
talk with the seniormost pilots Jacob, Das (newly promoted to Sqdn ldr) and four
others for nearly an hour...he being a non-flying post the mission would depend
on mostly the sagacity and improvisation of the key contributors. Next they
had a long and joint staff meeting with the full cadre of squadron pilots and
Jacob held a separate session with the four rookies present among them. Though
not strictly called for, he always made it a point to make every rookie
feel welcome and help with their mental preparation prior to every test. everyone
who came in was physically fit and a good flyer, but winning as always also
required the right frame of mind..atleast thats what he felt.

Nobody could be left behind, the mission demanded 100% resource utilization.

The hangers and revetments which had camo nets spread over them on systems of
wires and pulleys presented a air of controlled frenzy in the few hours left.
dozens of munitions trucks and bheema munition loading trolleys laboured with
their crews to fill each of the 16 Flankers upto the specified mission load.
Sweating technical crews ran through last minute checks, using the BITE
wherever provided on the LRUs. Engine crews raced the clock to make three under
repair Flankers ready for service using a stock of spare engines which had
fortunately been topped up with a shipment from Koraput just two days before.
Fuel trucks slunk around dropping tons of fuel into underground tanks for
piping into the capacious 9ton fuel tanks. the Garuda force people on red alert,
carefully screened the perimeter with portable NVG devices and the QRT stood
ready to rush at a moments notice.

Two of the flankers were loaded up with a new kind of munition previously never
fired by the IAF in anger. Their pilots Shankar and Amitabh received a separate
briefing over a videoconference VPN link from a weapons scientist at DARE to
resolve any last minute doubts. There hadnt been any time to permit planned
tests at the tezpur range due to a transient engine shortage and other pressing
commitments. They did have some simulator time with the weapon on two palleted
simulators made by a bangalore company(in collab with IAPO and using COTS
hw) that had been flown in from Pune in initial phase of the deployment.

Shankar and Amitabh were naturally more tense than the rest. The younger pilots
were uniformly all on edge. No phone calls or movement to-from the base was
permitted once the base Co received the cable, guwahati airbase would remain in
lockdown mode for the mission duration.

*****

At 2:15Am the lead pair of flankers Jacob and Das released throttles and
the four cones of flame receded into the distance .... behind them on the
parallel taxiway the next pair turned into the runway...six more pairs waited
their turn patiently. By 2:30am every plane was airborne and formed unto into
two units of 8 each flying snake formation at low level of 2000ft. Using the
Litening pods and tucked in a zig-zag fashion in two lines of 8 planes each,
the squadron flew into the meghalaya hills and began negotiating their radar
masked approach to the southern meghalaya region.

Das's plane proudly sported two black falcon kill symbols just behind the radome.
for Jacob the painters had come up with a new symbol given the unusual nature
of his deed. It consisted of a black snake inside the outline of a bag with a
rope tied around the bag's neck, thus signifying a capture. Jacob as usual had
no public comment on this and 'meekly' took what was painted...though Biswas did
catch a pleased look in the boss's eye talking about it later in the dormitory.

*****

Phalcon01 took off from Nagpur at 2:00AM and proceeded to the east for its
patrol station over eastern bihar state. Phalcon02 took off from Tezpur and headed
southwest to the north cachar hills. Phalcon03 stood ready reserve at Nagpur.
Half a batallion of base security troops on red alert prowled the base,
checking every noise and smell of the night. wild-eyed alsatians strained at
their leashes , noses keenlyseeking any hint of intruders as their handlers led
them around the perimeter. There was one false alarm, as a contact triggered a frenzy
among the mutts who were released only to have the patrol party come upon a hapless
wild boar torn apart by the excited dogs. A call on the walkie-talkie held off the
jeep borne QRT just about to depart the central garrison camp.


Midas01 and Midas02 with full fuel tanks assumed a hot standby posture inside
their capacious hangers in Agra base. They were expected to be needed before the
night was over.

Six AAR equipped Mig29S based in patna which would be the Phalcon
escort got airborne and flew to their rendezvous point with the big bird
flying silently towards them from the west. The sleek nosecones of six Adders
peeked out from the beneath the wings of each bird. A centerline fuel tank
and a Elta ECM pod distinguised these as having some sort of unknown upgrade.
IAF had been known to be tinkering with semi-approved upgrades of many types
on the Mig29 fleet to figure out what they wanted when the Mig29K production
line became available from the IN.

*****
Base CO guwahati observed his full squadron take off clean from the ATC
office and walked across the building to the secure comms room, dialing a
subsidiary of the DG air operations in Delhi. Unknown to him, the call was
patched through into the air control room of the national emergency command
center buried 150mts below ground somewhere west of delhi.

*****
At 2:45Am, 50% of the flanker squandron at silchar took off and the airport
being in a plateau, immediately descended into the deep ravines of the north
cachar hills to wait for the call. Speed was kept slow to conserve fuel.

****************

Regular late night international traffic at IGI airport was stopped for a
15 minute duration between 2-2:15AM to permit a Govt flight to Mumbai to
takeoff. The incoming Swissair flight made a couple of extra circuits before
landing safely as usual. The passengers thought it was due to extra

The B737-800 of the IAF VVIP sdqn that took off had defence minister Sen
and home minister Dighe onboard. It flew directly south rather than south-wes
to mumbai. With its light passenger load and mission payload it had a unrefuelled
endurance of around 8 hours, for it had been designed for 6 hr trips between
east-west coasts of north america with a full passenger and cargo load. It was
unofficially called NEACP01. Another sister plane was being constructed but for now
it was the only one India had.

******************

Brig George had completed his visit to Raven base east of raipur a week
ago. To mask his movement to anyone interested, a commercial flight to Raipur
followed by a nondescript road transport in civilian garb had been provided.
for all intents, a civil engineer from delhi had come to consult with a mining
exploration team camped inside the dense sal wood forest near lohapur village.
He had flown back quite satisfied with the state of affairs though there was
still some glaring shortcomings in the technology level of the equipment he
had available for the boys. New types of ultralight helment mounted night
sights for one..the old ones were a little on heavier side though far better
than the early models which came to fame in the first gulf war.

His report back in Delhi to CCS had finally set the wheels in motion, some
of which were the IAF missions...

Four Mi17 and four Dhruv's had taken off around midnight and flown steadily
east in a single pack, heading for panagarh in north bengal. Reserve machines
were available but the mechanics had been extra careful with the fleet and
no troubles developed after launch so they all continued on to the east. Lacking
in external fuel tank system for the Mi17s, a quickfix solution had been found
in thick-walled rubber bladders filled with fuel and lashed to the floor of
the passenger compartment. Men could walk around freely on this 'waterbed'
and equipment boxes upto a certain weight limit were permissible. The Dhruvs
which were the armed Army versin had two external fuel tanks on pylons, chin
machine gun turret, nose mounted FLIR housing and two rocket pods on the
outboard wing pylons. in addition thay also had a fuel bladder inside the
empty passenger compartment. Mi35s had been considered for the mission, but
their size, fuel guzzling nature and noise had been deemed unsuitable.

There were 100 fully armed men crammed inside the eight Mi17. A mix of NSG-SAG
and Para Cdo veterans, they had been selected for their experience both in
simulated training and in the countless shadowy COIN black-wars that went on
in the background in kashmir, NE, lanka, afghanistan etc. The men were not
very young, but seasoned by age and harsh conditions. The Dhruvs carried
only 2 unarmed troopers inside the cabin, nursemaiding some extra boxes of
small arms ammunition and Milan ATGM reloads which couldnt be fitted into the
Mi17s.

Two hours later, after crossing the hills of northern Jharkhand the flock
finally reached panagarh and settled down for a while to refuel and undergo
a check of all essential eqpt before the final jumpoff. In the dim starlight of
2 AM, tense section leaders went over final consultations with their teams,
making each man repeat for the last time his assigned initial role, the
operation plan and the backup plan should things go wrong. Men fingered
their INSAS and Tavor rifles nervously and the Milan teams checked their
active and spare batteries for the laser sights. Two qualified pilots for
each machine came onboard here, not part of the mission training but a
last minute addition during Brig George's final round of discussion...the
main sets of pilots could get wounded and thus compromise both the mission
and the fate of their approx 20 troopers. The backup crew could fly the
craft home at full speed though they werent trained to do the active part of
the mission itself. They received the most dense 10 min briefing of their
careers as the main crew filled them in on the full details of the flight plan.
The snipers, always a surly and aloof lot smoked a last cigarette together
after checking their PSG-1 rifles.

At 2:45 AM the flotilla went airborne again and laid a course for the north
suburbs of Dhaka.

Major Brinde Doley (1 Para Cdo) the overall raid leader calmly clutched his
short barrel INSAS carbine and dozed lightly. Son of a schoolteacher , he hailed
from a Baghmara village east of Bhalukpung in Tezpur district of Assam. His tribe,
the Mising straddled both sides of the assam-arunachal border and had lived in
the region for centuries past, preserving their own culture and language
as did the hundreds of unique tribes in the region. Blessed with a massive
'rogue warrior' type physique by good genetics, honed by years of hard work
in the rough terrain and forest, his main claim to notoriety before joining
the army had been cutting the hand off a fellow tribesman who had attempted to
molest his sister at the annual Darrangi mela. He had done it carefully, first
befriending the half drunk man, drawing him into the forest with the promise of
some marijuana and 'willing' tibetan girls, then breaking his jaw to subdue him
and using the traditional dao to sever the culprits right paw quickly. He had
left him there to die bleeding and alone. No remorse. That Dao , with various
dents and notches from past operations and brawls occupied a black leather
scabbard affixed to his left belt...he fingered the handle for emotional comfort
as he dozed, much like a infant sucking on the pacifier.

The paw hadnt been the only blood tasted by the dao, there had been many in the
years since he entered 1 para. Much had been jihadi blood, with a small slice of
ulfa and fellow travellers thrown in. He was not liked much by the more cerebral
types in the SF management chain, but the more earthy types got along rather well
with his bluntness and simple honesty. He dozed with a certain peace of mind, his
parents were gone, his sister had met a tragic road accident soon after marriage
in which his best friend (her husband) had also fallen. There was nobody waiting
if he came home in a bag, he could deal with that. In a way he was glad as he looked
around him and saw the eyes of men he knew had kin back home and worst of all who
didnt even know on the dangerous jaunts these quiet and competent men went about
routinely. Something felt like some wouldnt be making the return trip alive, he
only hoped their widows would get the paltry compensation on time atleast without
having to bribe anyone and that the media vultures and socialist intellectuals
would leave them to grieve alone.

The darkened armada with all lights and radios off thundered on through the
thick fog of north bengal created the scores of small rivers and lakes in the
region. The Dhruv pilots used their GPS nav kits and 3D terrain map MFDs
coupled to the FLIR to pilot their mounts low and fast over the rice paddies
and swamps. The Mi17s lacked such gear and their pilots simply concentrated on
tailing the Dhruvs closely as safely possible.

After passing 15km south of Malda, they reduced speed and went down to treetop
level as the IB was crossed...

The flight leader a group captain of army aviation wing sent a brief encrypted
message on his portable data terminal , shut down the device and focussed on the
task ahead.

There was no going back now.

*******

Group captain Arshad Khan the F-16 unit leader at Dhaka was just done attending
a reception for PAF officers organized by the local Dhaka embassy and Friends of
Pakistan society. Initially reluctant to waste a night on this, he had relented after
some pressing by the embassy people and finally took eight of his boys in one of the
chartered minibuses they used to trips to the town. A full quota of ready room pilots
had to be left behind ofcourse, no chances could be taken after the incident with the
Flankers. Four planes stood on hot standby at all hours these days and additional
MANPADS and a Crotale battery flown in from Chaklala guarded his base day and night.

So they had gone off around 8:00pm and were now returning around 2:30am...some pilots
were dozing a little, trying to sleep off the liquor which had been of good quality
He had a unhappy feeling in the stomach, perhaps a onset of the 'runs' that had ravaged
his squadron lately....he cursed himself for letting the local deputy mayor talk him
into eating too much of the grilled hilsa fillets, spiced with green chilies, coriander
and mustard seeds. excellent stuff but only if consumed in moderation. He disliked the
younger unmarried pilots who had run like wolves around the elegant society ladies
in attendence, well I suppose they have a right to try and forget the conditions in this
miserable country! he missed Pakistan, missed the whisper smooth expanse of the lahore
islamabad motorway where every weekend he'd take out his Hyuandai accent (a marriage
gift from his exporter father) and roar along at 150kmph to squeals of pleasure from
his two kids, missed the superb facilities and the officers mess in sargodha where the
elite' of the elite' of PAF gathered around the fire and above all he missed the cool
climate of his part of the world. here it was the hated humidity and heat and mosquitoes
all round the year. Men lost pounds of weight if they didnt hydrate themselves properly
here, the base was shabby and there wasnt any money to improve it quickly, no life, no
family , no fun. The scrawny, dark BAF pilots who hung around trying to pickup tips from
his pilots he treated with a special contempt. The horde of thin, dirty looking
bangladeshi traders who hung around the base gate attempting to sell cloth, cheap plastic
goods, pirated music and above all the hated fishes had made life miserable for
the expat detachment. There was no entertainment worthy of a real man like wild boar
hunting or going for long drives to hill stations.

His thoughts turned by and by to the day ahead, a round of exercises were scheduled
for tomorrow morning. they had belatedly started to work
on some joint training and co-ordination concepts with the chinese sukhoi squadrons
posted at the other airbase. As he had been told to expect by PAF people who had
visited china before, their training and general caliber was well below PAF standards.
PAF pilots in general got the better of them , though obviously the sukhois were
at a overwhelming advantage in BVR mode. Still, the F16 jocks did manage to develop some
tactics to negate the advantage and level the field. Especially after the 'incidents'
over the jaintia hills , Khan had laid stress of DACT with the sukhois with an aim to
understand all aspects of the big bird. He now felt comfortable they would give a
bloody nose should the indian flankers ever dare to cross the line again. Modern lockheed
L-88 tethered radars given under the war on terrorism package had been flown to the
theater and these gave a good coverage on the hilly terrain of north bangladesh, the area
where the delta started sloping up to the khasi, garo and jaintia hills of meghalaya and
the chittagong-cachar hill tracts.

The bus slowed down and turned off the highway into the airbase. The pilots were dropped
off at the dormitory, Khan decided to head for the combat planning room to go over the
details of the coming exercise before retiring for the night. He found Sqdn leaders Imran
and Orakzai on duty in the ready room watching PTV video tapes, the two other standing
pilots were resting in a darkened room off the hallway. He settled down comfortably
with some strong coffee and a couple of files. the time on the old wallclock read 3:00am.

************************

Hedayatpur military camp was a 200 acre facility located 50km north of Dhaka and
home to the BD army intelligence HQ, two batallions of logistical units, one company of
light infantry guards and a stray small units in regular times. It stretched in a I-shape along a
major highway leading into the city with 4 entry gates along a 0.5km stretch of frontage.
At night only the main gate was left open. Each gate was well guarded for the main occupant
BD army intelligence had a lot of things to protect and hide. Heavy machine controlled steel
gates, concrete pillars that forced a would-be gatecrasher to slow down, a MG nests presented
a imposing barrier to entry. Unusually for a BD army camp, the entire boundary wall was floodlit
from inside and metal sentry towers were emplaced at 200m distances all along the perimeter.
The reason for this abnormal level of security were two - this was the main center where
political and religious enemies of the state were brought captive for incarceration, torture,
secret trials and secret executions. A well constructed underground jail block catered to
the steady stream of 'spies and traitors' fingered by whoever controlled the BD army of the
day. of late, business had picked up markedly under Gen Jaffars patronage. The second reason
were two 'guesthouses' run directly by BD army intel where honoured guests like visiting
ISI agents, indian terrorist leaders, myanmar rebel leaders and chinese advisers were
provided lodge and board for duration of stay in Dhaka. This centralized system permitted
keeping tabs on their movements and also kept them perfectly safe from their numerous
enemies including rival factions, indian govt agents, criminals paid by india and the
more activist sections of the media.

Slush funds from the BD armys numerous business activities and payments from narcotics
and terrorist entrepreneurs facilitated the running costs of the camp and left a healthy
surplus for the BD army's top brass to fund their lavish lifestyles including summer
hols in Europe/USA and foreign education for their children. It had been a hit with everyone
from the moment the 'corporate guest house' services had opened and a steady stream of
discerning visitors made use of it. It wasnt cheap at 4000 Taka a night for a double room
but the security, privacy, excellent food & drink, gym, conferencing facility and provision
for high quality female companion(s) attracted the discerning among the terrorist and terror
master corporate elite.

Behind the camp lay a stretch of water hyacinth covered marshland, pools of darkish water
with outcrops of land scattered around. it was hard to know where was solid land because
everything had a solid cover of water hyacinth, tall grass and other such vegetation.
The marshland gave way to clearer pools of water and eventually 1km away the sandbars and
shore of the huge Meghna river. This was the river formed by the combined power of the
Ganga and Brahmaputra river valley watersheds and its destructive fury in the monsoons was
not pretty. But now was winter and the water was placid. Dozens of darkened fishing boats
lay at anchor in deep water casting nets and lines for the world famous hilda, eelish,
rohu, river eels and other fishes that were exported worldwide. No tree had ever managed to
take root in the marsh because the marsh was natural, not a man made lake that overtopped
some old forest. Slivers of fog curled and pooled in the area, reducing visibility from
the guard towers along the back wall. Still, the searchlights reached out for 200m and turned
night into day along this belt. The only creatures awake at this hour were the fishing
owls, fishes, frogs and other reptilian residents. The frogs made quite a throaty racket
as a couple of species were in full mating season.

**********

3:00AM

The RAW-ARC B737-200 flying 100km south of Bagdogra over north bengal finished its
ELINT mission, executed a gentle turn to the west and headed back home to Charbatia.
A exploitation officer at a data console prepared a short list of GPS coordinates of
the two known L88 locations and the one 3D radar and sent it out via the satcom link to
base station in charbatia.

Ten minutes later, a officer at the naval section of the NECC(national emergency command
center) somewhere-west-of-delhi got the flash message on his console and glanced over
at his army counterpart nearby who had got a CC: on it. He dialed up Maj Gen Kaul who
was the duty officer tonight.

The CCS minus the airborne Sen and Dighe were in session at another level below the
NECC command center and received the news shortly thereafter. PM Arora took the call on
speakerphone with the NEACP01 patched in and personally gave the "Go" order.

The co-ordinates and orders went out over the ether again to two units - one on land
and the other waiting at sea. the VLF facility at trivandrum calling forth the submerged
vessel to periscope depth for the actual order data.

**********

Unit777s comm truck got the order and the commander personally marched to a
TEL parked 50 mts away under the thick canopy of a banyan tree, bordering a reserve
forest 61km north of Malda, around 5km off the national highway. Passing the muffled
challenge thrown by the guards he sat himself down inside the operating compartment
of the TEL and watched as the crew busied themselves with the pre-flight checks and
launch sequence. Electric power flooded through the slim black tubes, three of which
were stacked inclined along the back of the huge Tatra vehicle.

The driver took his vehicle out 20 mts from the forest. The navigation system alignment
procedures started to give an accurate starting point the projectiles. 4 mins later
the big motors hummed and the tube assembly swung at an angle to the side.

At 3:20AM as per instructions the commander gave the launch order.

Big boom and a sheet of flame erupted from the mouth of the first tube as the lead
Brahmos missile left its canister and roared away into the night, low and fast. Few
seconds later the second and third missile left their tubes.

100mts away another TEL in the unit networked into the first launch vehicle unleased
its load almost simultaneously and did another TEL parked 50mts on the other side along
the edge of the dark forest.

The nine Brahmos missiles settled into their low and flat trajectory, crossed the first
waypoint and headed into their programmed course. terrain modelling data from CARTOSAT1
stored in their memories dictated their height control module and they sped over the
odd hill maintaining a nearly constant distance above the ground.

**************

Phalcon01 now on station over eastern bihar picked up the nine low flying tracks
immediately and did nothing. the radar data was already blended into the big screen at
NECC. It started broadcasting the radar picture to all listening nodes on its coded
id network via the satcom dish.

Deep in the valleys of meghalaya the Flankers finally started receiving the entire
radar picture on the Phalcons 600km radius of search. Jacob noted the nine tracks and
made his own estimate about the implications of what seemed to be outgoing cruise missiles.

Phalcon02 also logged into the network and downrelayed the picture to its own brood of
#39 squadron flankers prowling slowly east of silchar.

**************

3:41AM

the first of the brahmos salvo reached the set co-ordinates of the L88 radar fed to
it by the combined work of the ARC boeing and a Samyukta unit camped on the border
in west bengals maldah district. At a height of 20 meters and distance of 100m from
its target point the radio altimeter fuse directed the warhead release. tiny pyrobolts
blew away the missile casing around the warhead section and a shower of impact fused
HE bomblets were blown out by radial bottles of compressed inert gas. This 'cloud' of
bomblets covered the remaining 100mts in miliseconds and impacted like a monsoon
rainstorm around the radar tethering truck, logistics vehicle and a guard truck parked
in a cluster. following seconds behind the leader, the next two missiles had been
rigged to hit two different areas based on TES imagery of the site. Brahmos2 homed in
on a wooded area about 500mts from the radar tether site which housed two large trailers
for the control and communication station. The warhead this time was a unitary HE 300kg
primed for airburst right at the target location. A devastating shock wave of shrapnel
and flame ripped the heart out from the flimsy unarmoured trailers, the equipment and
the occupants. Brahmos3 made a beeline for a camping area nearby with prefab huts that
housed the approx 100 Pak army people operating the site on a continuous basis. Other than
10 inside the trailers, 5 at the radar tether and 10 on perimeter guard duty the rest
75 people consisting of officers, specialists, engineers, guards, cooks and supply people
were catching a good nights sleep. However 300kg of pre-frag HE warhead put a painful
end to any idea of restful sleep, though perpetual sleep did claim most.

His clothes on fire, a man ran screaming away into the darkness seeking to jump into
any water he could find. A two-man MANPADS team jumped to their feet from their site
about a kilometer away and started jogging down the road looking for help at a BD
army station located nearby...the three huge explosions gave them a 'feeling' that a
lot of medical help would soon be needed. They left their Anza2 missiles behind, no warning
had been given and no targeting was possible on low flying mach2.5 missiles...they had
heard the roar of ramjet engines a few moments before the hits and managed to drag themselves
to their feet but the missiles themselves needed a 20 sec warmup time and then one had to
actually lock the IR seeker on target before release. hopeless.

covering around 41km every minute the second salvo of brahmos sped on past the flames
of the first site to the second L88 site. Here the camp area also had a couple of fuel
trucks dropping off kerosene and cooking gas to the garrison, so the results were more
luminous.

Cut from their tethers , the baloons carrying the radar antennas floated aimlessly
around for a while then drifted to the north east with the prevailing wind at 15000ft.

The third trio had the longest to cover and flew for another 2 mins before reaching
3D radar site located on a hillock east of the river meghna. this time all three missiles
were directed to explode right atop the static radar since TES had revealed the control
trailers were parked right next to it, perhaps due to a shortage of the necessary cabling.
Being a high value target a truck mounted Crotale battery was indeed present onsite
and on alert, but the batterys targetting radar was unable to get a good look until too
late on the low flying and small-RCS incomers so no Crotale2000 missiles could be
released in response. The air defence unit being located upstream from the radar survived
intact and its commander put in the emergency call to Group capt Khan at the Dhaka
control room.

"3D radar confirmed destroyed by missile strike. withdrawing unit to Dhaka and arranging
for medical treatment to any survivors"

The secretive work on the land-attack version of Brahmos had finally cleared its first
battle test. for long only existing in the wild eyed speculation of nationalist internet
forums, it had in reality been worked on in parallel right from day1 and been tested
disguised as a ship-attack version in between tests of the real ASM version to 'soothe'
those that needed to be soothed.

***************

3:30AM

INS Sindhuraj which had detached a week ago from its task force and prowling alone
east of new moore island got its firing orders after coming up on the VLF flash message
to periscope depth. the firing procedures took four minutes to complete and in the meantime
the submarine maintained a missile firing depth of 30 meters beneath the muddy silt laden
Meghna estuarine waters slowly pushing into the bay of bengal. A quick passive radar
check and IR scan via the periscope plus the passive sonar confirmed nothing in the vicinity
but for a medium container ship droning on towards its destination chittagong.

Commander Shetty patiently waited until the tubes were all ready and released tubes 1,2,3
and 4 a few seconds apart. seawater flooded in, the compressed gas generators got to
work and ejected the huge black painted Klub capsules away and up from the submarine. Leaving
the water at a 45' angle, the capsules sensed the lack of water pressure and dropped away.
Accelerometers sensed the inert missile beginning to slow and ignited the sustainer rocket
motor. The sleek missiles unfolded their spring loaded fins and vanished into the
darkness like a trio of prehistoric birds.

Sindhuraj sent a short burst into the satcom channel, dived to 100 meters which was the
deepest safe depth in this area of the estuarine shelf and crept away at a quiet 8 knots.

The missiles headed right into the mouth of the Meghna along a axis of nonexistent radar
coverage identified a month ago by ESM missions from a ARC 737 flying innocently over
international waters on a 'ferry mission' to Port Blair. Unlike the ASM version, these
missiles kept low around 100ft above the calm water and flew subsonically up the river
towards Dhaka, the well designed high lift stub wings providing a economical lift to
help the small engines conserve fuel.

Around 50km away from the F16 base in Dhaka, the onboard mission computers activated
IIR seeker, increased the burn rate to speed up the missiles and dropped the altitude
to 50ft above the river level. the IIR seekers started to 'see' imagery already stored
in onboard memory as the missiles adopted a new bearing to avoid flying over a known
radar site west of dhaka and over some heavily populated areas.


Group Captain Khan had just got off the phone with the Crotale commander, sent his four
ready pilots running to their waiting jets, raised the base alarm siren and was on the
phone again to the dormitory to arrange for all available pilots to reach the briefing
area on the double when the first missile executed a greaceful banking turn from the
east, overflew the base housing area and smashed into the ATC-control room building
as directed by the IIR seeker which had easily id'ed the target from the shape of the
control tower and ATC radar atop. For added insurance the second missile had been directed
to hit the same target from another direction, it came in a longer loop from the north and
completed the destruction of the structure.

The third missile which had been directed to engage a hanger believed to house six of the
F16s flew towards its target at the far end of the base. Unfortunately for it, a newly
relocated Crotale battery was directly below its path and the well drilled crew managed to
release three missiles after detecting the incoming Klubs still 10km away. The first missile
narrowly missed intercepting Klub2 , the second missile scored a clear kill on Klub3 since
they were approaching each other from opposite directions generating a good interception
solution. The third crotale hit the fireball of the second.

At 3:33AM the first of the four heavily armed F-16s raced airborne followed quickly by
the other three. Back at base, another eight pilots hastily made ready to get airborne
in the next few minutes trying to block out the pain of their leader's probably demise.
The mood was ugly, but discipline and training was tight and men went about their task
calmly. They were the elite of the PAF and it showed in the lack of panic, the measured
nature of their preparation, the initiative of the ground crews who already had everything
lined up on six Falcons and were working like mad to prepare another two Falcons for
departure.

At 3:45AM the first of the second batch roared off the runway followed in short order
by the other seven. Working to a patrol plan they split into two units and headed at
supersonic speed to the north aiming to catch up with the first set of four as
soon as possible.

Meantime the deputy Cmdr W.Hassan informed the PLAAF counterpart and could do little to
choke back his fury when a insolent sounding junior officer demanded to know why he
wanted the base CO on the line asap. After a few expletives the orderly went on in his
typical chinese way of pretending not to understand a scolding and agreed to rouse his CO.
A sleepy sounding Col Li came on the line in a few mins and upon hearing of the grave
matter set about scrambling his four ready Flankers immediately and preparing more for duty.

Col Li put his phone down and first got on the horn to his two Tor-M batteries
to look sharp and be ready before giving the scramble order to his ready room pilots.
Cursing and swearing under his breath , he set about rustling up another eight pilots from
his sleeping pool of twenty all of whom were rather tired after a day of classroom exercises and
politically directed (stupid he thought) lessons in bangladeshi and islamic culture
delivered by a dreadful fat pig from the BD culture ministry. God he wished he use his
genuine leather boots to kick the crap out of that braying donkey himself. Four hours of
stuff nobody was interested in with no tea breaks. right at that moment he wished he was
back at his tame Harbin posting resting in the arms of his wife. the f***ing indians and
his whole shindig was far too unpredictable to be of his liking, right now he could be
making money on the booming china stock market. His miserable cousin Wang with that perpetual
grin on his face and a beautiful young wife was minting a fortune on property speculation
per what he heard on the phone from his wife and parents. Screw you cousin wang, I am going
to deal with you good and proper if you ever show up to insult me in your new passat!

The departing roar of his four Flankers interrupted his train of thought and he quickly
left in a jeep for the command trailer of his YLC2 3D radar camouflaged in a remote part
of the base. the walkie talkie informed him soon that more pilots were awake and starting to
arrive at the briefing room. Deputy Tong already knew what to do, he was more interested
in finding out what exactly was happening and taking steps to contain the situation before
the so-called Paki "allies" drove it out of control. orders from beijing had been to try
and soothe the hothead allies as much as possible and refrain from getting provoked by the
indians. He intented to follow that to the letter.

********

Confidential Air Tasking Order 2008/BR/1204/01
To: #20 Lightning Squadron
From: DG Operations Vayu Sena Office
Signed: Air Commodore Jaswant Singh Basra (Assistant DGAO)

Salient points

* This tasking order must be treated at level-A1 confidentiality
* essential personnel only (pilots and WSO) made known of its contents, no ground crew to
be privy other than munitions loadout details

* Total air superiority sweep presence over north bangladesh on a line north of Dhaka
for a period of 3 hours between 3:00AM and 6:00AM on selected Day of Op-Raven
* Intent is to protect the ingress and egress of a SF force meant to rescue high value
hostage from a intel facility 50km north of Dhaka center
* Hostile response from both the PAF and PLAAF detachment should be assumed.
* You are authorized to launch preemptive attacks on any non-indian hostile flying vehicle
fixed wing or rotary within this operational zone for the duration of mission
* You are authorized to defend with deadly force
* You are *not* authorized to launch attacks on ground targets other than AAA/SAM sites
directly of threat to you
* Engagement with the PLAAF is to be avoided unless directly threatened, engagement preferably
a decisive morale sapping one is to be sought with the PAF with the intent to render
them ineffective as a combat force in the near future. It is upto you to come up locally with
such a plan.
* in all circumstances , protection of the indian raiding party is of utmost importance even
at the cost of declining combat with the enemy.
* missile strikes based on ELINT and IMINT data will be carried out against the three main radar
sites we know of prior to commencement of the operational phase
* Mirage2000s from Panagarh will be on orbit with ARMs to target any new radars that may
suddenly become activated, other Mirage2000s will be escorting so your squadron will not be
called on to protect them.
* we will place two Phalcons in theatre, one for you, the other flying from Tezpur to support
#39 off Silchar which will be the flying combat reserve should your formation need additional
support. You may expect atleast 50% of #39 to be available during the mission over the NC hills
grid box 91.201 patrol area
* AAR support cannot be provided due to shortage of airframes and need to refuel Mig29 escorts
and the Phalcons themselves. So 90% fuel fraction should be planned for. For emergency recovery
all airbases in eastern command would be available , bubble protected by Bisons. A single Midas
will be available under #39 incase of dire need.
* Munitions carried should be suitable for both WVR and BVR engagements. Two airframes should
carry the Mk.101 munition (4 each) for targeting of a high value complex part of
the target site (only) after the successful egress of all indian units. You are free to arrange
escort as necessary.


***********

3:45-4:00AM

the GCI control trailer which fortunately had been parked well away from the ATC building
now took over as the main C3I node. Equipped with used but very good equipment furnished from
surplus USAF stocks it quickly discovered that the three radars feeding it the data had all
gone offline and all attempts to call them directly didnt work. Someone recalled the AD units
had separate radio sets and quickly managed to raise the commander of the Crotale units to get
the full details.
This left the YLC2 at the chinese base as the main radar for control of BD airspacea and again,
the farsighted Khan had managed to get his chinese couterpart to lay a few kilometers of cable
and some high banhdwidth radio links to get the YLC2 data into his own GCI trailer as well.

While radio operators contacted the 12 F16s flying north about the outage of their radars and
told them the YLC2 was still available, a very tight watch was mounted on the 3D radar imagery
for any signs of intruding planes. The 12 Falcons were clearly visible and so were the 4 Flankers
now airborne and orbiting over Dhaka, three commercial aircraft heading for the civilian part of
Dhaka airport were warned off and told to head towards Kolkata, off to the west tracks of other
large ac heading towards Kolkata were evident, some other large ac presumably military could be
seen at high level far away over eastern bihar, 4 smaller returns presumably fighters with
one of these contacts.....it became clear within seconds it was a Phalcon or Midas probably a
Phalcon because no other ac required such a heavy escort....a few fighter type tracks off near
panagarh presumably mirages.

Few minutes later the officer at a ground based ESM site near the assam border
using british Marconi equipment called in to report his equipment picking up distinctive
emissions of the Phalcon radar.

Almost at the same time, another Phalcon and four fighter tracks became visible as the powerful
YLC2 ramped up to its massive full power on indstructions by the PLAAF commander. Flying over
central assam Nagaon district it seemed to be flying a racetrack holding pattern at 41,000ft.
Confirmation from another ESM site in the CHT region came in soon.

After a brief telephonic talk on the hotline, Col Li decided to scramble four Flankers immediately
and hold another eight as a ready reserve. Technicians scrambled to roll out the missiles and
get them loaded onto the sleek humpbacked J-11s waiting on the flight line. in the ready room, pilots
got a running commentary of the radar situation and made last minute checks on maps of BD topography,
recovery areas, engagement procedures and seniors ceaselessly worked to calm the wound up junior
pilots and get them prepared.

Over the PAF base, mechanics worked to arm and prepare eight more Falcons as the ready reserve. The
pilots , all of them long since awake grabbed some coffee and hot food while awaiting further
instructions.

************

Commander Bhartendu Sinha and the 25 men of Marcos detachment Raven sat quietly as the two
heavily modified CG griffon hovercrafts , lights out and engines throttled back to reduce
noise cruised quietly down the sluggish course of the Jumna river as the brahmaputra was
called in BD. It had been easy to engineer their ingress past the lone BD ranger water patrol
by starting a small incident of firing on one shore, waiting until the motorboat
had rushed past to investigate then emerging from thick cover on the shore of opposite bank.
The river being around 2km wide at the border with numerous grassy sandbars ensured nobody would
notice the two black craft, low in the water sliding past the gate. the BSF water patrols had
been told to stay out of the area that night.

Night fishermen along the route did see the two strange vessels but bereft of knowledge as to
their origin or any means of communication, their sense of puzzlement remained localized.

It had been a tedious journey from gujrat for the vessels, modifications had started on the
transport ship itself and nearly completed by the time they reached GRSE. first the austere
CG navcomm suite was supplemented by new high power secure radios, night vision gear for the
operators to permit sailing without lights, side armour skirts for the passenger compartment
and a armour coating for the white house. Extra fuel tanks added. old life rafts thrown out to
be replaced with marcos assault rubber boats. all this made the craft heavier and slower, which
wasnt a problem because speed wasnt a big requirement.

behind each vessel they towed a flat bottomed airboat of the type seen in florida everglades.
the only modifications were a menacing looking MMG mount low in the front and a Milan/Shipon
mount higher up the rear just infront of the driver who had been given a lower seat than the
elevated seat of the florida boats.

So they had sailed down the Jumna and then the Meghna for nearly 8 hours now, creeping quietly
to the shore whenever a significant threat of discovery like a large passenger ferry appeared on
the low power radar.

Reaching a point around 1km upstream from the Hedayatpur compound around 2:15AM Cmdr Sinha ordered
a halt until the next order....the helsmen consulted their GPS devices complete with terrain maps
helpfully supplied by ISRO and per the plan steered into a quiet creek on the west shore screened from
view by 10 foot tall river grass. The engines shut and they lay dead in the water.


********

at 3:46 AM Cmdr Sinha finally received the coded message on his radio and the nerve wracking
approach phase started . Fans silent, they used a small outboard electric motor to creep at
5 knots downriver using the current to maximum effect and finally arrived at a spot 1km from
the compound wall with only the marshes and sandbars separating them now.

Five men from each boat mounted the airboats, leaving eight men on each Griffon. the quiet clinks
of weapons and missile tubes being given final once over, of night vision devices trained all
over the place.

*********

4:10AM

While the Mi17s remained behind hovering over a forest, the Dhruvs commenced
their final attack run from 7kms away to the west. Everything depended on achieving the initial
impact on the target since the assault force was very small for the task.

Dhruv1 the team leader approached to 3km, climbed upto 200 ft for a good look then climbed down
again to treetop height before going forward gently again. A few seconds later line abreast, the
four appeared from the mist on a line perpendicular to the highway passing infront of the camp.
Dhruv2 swivelled the nose cannon and emptied a long burst into the guardhouse and sandbags guarding
the main gate. for good measure a couple of grenades from the co-axial AGL was also sent out.
Dhruv2,3,4 flew over the wall and headed for the biggest threat inside the camp - three buildings
that housed the dormitories of almost the entire troops based at the camp. Using their NVG to locate
targets in the gloom around 100 small caliber rockets and hundreds of rounds of cannon fire were
unleashed at these sleeping inhabitants. A store of cooking gas went off that collapsed
one building in a cloud of cement dust , tin scrap and broken wood. Moving on they turned their
attention to the motor pool area adjacent housing around 15 light vehicles and 25 trucks. Scores of
cannon shells and a few AGL rounds applied to this badly damaged most vehicles within a minute.

Dhruv1 meantime flew lengthwise down the front wall of the compound gunning down the terrified
sentries in the four guard towers with accurate rounds from its stabilized cannon. A important
looking guard hut at the intersection of the front and side walls got a AGL grenade. Dhruv1 now
started down one side wall , while Dhruv4 did the same on the other side wall. Dhruv2 and 3 flew
a circle around the inner citadel of the campus housing a large building proudly bearing the
flags of the BD army and BD intel unit. Here and there the NVGs revealed figures scurrying around
from building to building, any body of troopers attempting to approach the inner citadel were
targeted with cannon and grenade fire. The two troopers in the back of each dhruv also slid back
one side door to reveal a ugly looking beltfed MMG with which they took shots at any targets of
opportunity.

At the rear wall, the shocked sentries feeling very vulnerable were quickly climbing down the
ladders and had already vacated their posts when the two Dhruvs intersected over the midpoint of
of the rear wall.

With the outer layer peeled away, both the Mi17s and the Marcos detachment received the call.
The hovercrafts and airboats now at full power charged up over the swamp vegetation and easily
roared over the shallow sandbars as they appeared in their path. Arriving at the wall, a hail of
machine gun and Shipon rockets soon quelled the morale of a hardy section of defenders who had
organized and were firing from behind a section of the rampart.

Black rubber covered ladders came out and 20 men crossed over quickly,leaving 5 men supported
by Dhruvs 1 and 4 to watch over the equipment. It was around 200meters to the intel citadel
and they achieved it at a easy loping run, scanning right and left with night vision sights
before taking cover below the boundary wall of the citadel. People seemed to be running around
inside and the hornets nest was very active...flashes of fire from the windows and roof indicated
defenders taking shots at the Dhruvs circling overhead as they were yet unaware of where exactly
the breachers of the rear wall were headed. A group of four smart BD troopers appeared from nowhere
right behind the position and the situation nearly went out of control as a confused short range
gunbattle erupted. Two Marcos men got hit in the neck and face and were lost leaving only eighteen.
All around the campus there were signs of activity as the recovering defenders gathered their
wits and guns and started heading on the double towards the most obvious target - the intel compound.

Mi17-1 disgorged a Milan missile and MMG team around 1km south from the campus on the highway leading
into Dhaka and remained airborne with 4 rocket pods in support. Mi17-2 did the same at a place 1km
north of the campus in the other direction of the highway. Mi17-3 and 4 headed directly for the
campus. At the main gate , Mi17-3 hovered briefly as the diversionary force of 25 men fast roped
down heavily laden with explosive charges. They got to work quickly, running through the campus
shooting and throwing charges at any structure or strongpoint to engage the defenders in a running
battle. Using memorized map of the compound, care was taken to keep within stone's throw of the
compound wall however to avoid getting encircled and trapped.

Mi17-4 disgorged 20 men onto the roof of the intel building, using a burst of rocket fire
to sweep it clean a few moments beforehand. the two supporting Dhruvs conserved their ammo
but maintained the vigil.

Major Doley was the first man on his rope and touched down almost at the same time as the lead
men on the three other ropes. sweeping the roof for remnants of defenders they paused briefly
to let the full squad catch up before heading in two teams of ten men each down the pair of
staircases leading down. They poked their heads around the doorway and withdrew right away as
bursts of gunfire greeted them from the dark passages below. Doley spoke briefly into his
mouthpiece radio and lay quiet and Dhruv2 took a risk and hovered down vertically right next
to building. it swivelled its cannon and raked the top floor of the three storey building
from end to end with cannon fire, adding 5 rounds of grenades for good measure before climbing
up swiftly again to a safer height. it was now out of ammo for the cannon but still had a
few grenades and the door gunner left.

Doley's team started down again, sweeping through the third floor shooting dead stray
survivors of the assault, room by room the twin teams swept the second floor clean, mostly
offices occupied by high ranking staffers it looked like from the furniture. Two men were
detailed to use supplied tools and strip out the hard disks from all PCs they could see
to mine for information later. The 16 remaining for 2 had fallen in the battle for the second
floor headed for the first floor on the double. Leaving behind 4 men to guard the stairwell
and block anyone prowling on the first floor they continued on down into the basement.

The lights went out, perhaps some smart member of the defence team seeking to make it
more difficult for the attackers.

A very bloody battle in the basement by the dim light of the somewhat cumbersome
NVG eyepieces as the ten men crept into the confined space. Flashes of gunfire so close
eventually made the NVGs useless and the six surviving of the ten finally switched to
hi-power torches out of necessity as they kept pressing on into the inner sanctum of
the interrogation complex.

Doley spoke into his radio again calling for the Marcos unit which was lying low to
come up and provide support on the ground floor to his four troopers left behind alone
and the two sweeping the floor above.

room by room they searched and sometimes found terrified prisoners clinging to their
beds and hiding under the tables. ignoring them they continued searching for their quarry.

A grenade rolled down by a clever enemy claimed another two jawans which left only four.

Finally they reached a larger than usual set of rooms that seemed fitted out like a
comfortable apartment for a long stay rather than a holding pen before a quick execution.
Doley decided to take a risk and creep in alone rather than chance a firefight that
might hurt their quarry and render the whole mission useless. So far he hoped the guess
that the captors wouldnt kill the quarry at the first sign of trouble was right because
they had shed so much blood in vain otherwise.

Leaving aside his INSAS carbine he drew the silenced beretta pistol and darted his head around
the doorway into the apartment drawing-cum-dining room. Madam was there, surrounded by two
vicious looking guards, the kind who didnt fight much but took some pleasure in torturing and
executing people. One of them seemed to have placed a noose around Madams neck to control her
movements better, she looked dishevelled like just being dragged froms. Both carried their
sidearms and both saw Doley as they let loose a few rounds in his general direction. Fortunately
the walls were solid concrete and didnt let the low velocity rounds through.

Doley waited for their initial enthusiasm to abate and then dived into the room towards a corner,
rising upto his knees he fired a single shot at the noose guys head, missing him by a couple
of inches as the target instinctively ducked.
and then his pistol jammed, but there was no time to think anymore just years of training
and instinct giving him the edge as the second guy fired another two shots at him missing his
diving frame by inches, his six round mag now empty and fingers frantically feeling his pocket for
another clip. Doley was a blur as as he first threw his jammed pistol at one man and
covered the fifteen feet separating them , callused rough hand reaching across to the left for the Dao
handle, unsheating of the heavy broad blade
and the final killing angular hacking blow from high up on the right going diagonally across the
neck and ripping deep into the rib cavity. ignoring the wash of warm blood on his hands, turned
on the second man to find him running away into one of the bedrooms. Uttering a oath and Dao raised
for the strike Doley ran after his victim and felled him at the bathroom door just as the
terrified torture jockey turned around with a deer in the headlights look, pants wet with warm urine.
Doley dragged a mute and speechless looking madam out to the doorway where another trooper put a
bulletproof jacket and helmet on her and continued to drag and guide her to the basement stairs. She
weakly wiped some vomit from her throat and attempted to focus on the immediate issues rather than
the gory scenes she had just witnessed.

The Marcos had taken care of a band of ground floor defenders by simply firing carl gustaf rockets
into their rooms and were now in full control of the ground floor and the citadel compound itself
but the crackle of fire from nearby buildings indicated resistance was still present.

A huge explosion overhead signaled that some bright lad had finally nailed their Mi17-4
with a RPG round and the people outside hastily ran in to escape the falling debris and burning
oil.

Surrounded by a close screen of eight troopers and the two Dhruvs coming in low to blast away
at flashes of gunfire on the sides, Madam was taken from the building with the remaining of
the assault teams fanning out in a loose circle and all moving towards the rear wall where the
Marcos vehicles awaited. Two more men fell to wild gunfire during the withdrawal. the sack of
salvaged hard disks was dragged along by the two men who had ripped apart many of the PCs on the
second floor.

Exit over the wall was uncontested and all the surplus grenades and Shipon rockets were unloaded
in the general direction of their pursuers to discourage ideas of close pursuit.

With extra people somehow crammed in by keeping ten Marcos people on the airboats, the little
armada finally came off the wall and headed for the river at full speed. The airboats brought
up the rear moving in zig-zag fashion to permit their MMGs to bear and blaze away at anyone
seen on the rampart. Finally they were out of small arms range and went quiet.

The two road blocking parties hadnt had much to do, one side had waylaid a colourful marriage
party and a bunch of small trucks without violence. The other side had smashed a convoy of big
trucks with Milan missiles which on inspection turned out to be just commercial vehicles. Mi17s
soon appeared to pick them up. the diversion party who had gone in via the gate came out after
blasting a hole in the wall and their Mi17 swooped in to pick them up. All three Mi17s formed up
and headed for the rendezvous point with the Marcos on the river around 5km upstream.

Of the four Dhruvs one had engine damage from ground fire and crashlanded into a sandbar on the
swamp. One of the others picked up its crew, while another Dhruv put a couple grenades into the
hulk. The three Dhruvs again departed behind the Mi17s.

Arriving at the rendezvous spot, the hovercrafts and airboats were abandoned and emplaced with
delayed charges, the passengers all distributed quickly among the six helos, all extra equipment
thrown into the river to lighten the weight and the six helos departed in three identical
subgroups of a Dhruv+Mi17 on three separate routes all heading for the west bengal border at
maximum possible speed and treetop level to evade ground and fighter radars in lookdown mode.

Maj Doley sat down for some rest and to wipe his Dao clean. He looked
across at Madam who seemed to have recovered some composure and was asking Cmdr Sinha about
all the details of the who/why/how. He overheard her thanking Cmdr Sinha and all the team
as he drifted to sleep in the dark cabin. He vaguely hoped all the blood of his friends lost
tonight would be worth it.

90 mins later, all three subgroups would cross unharmed over the invisible border across
the rice paddies and head for secretive recovery zones prepared beforehand with choppers waiting
to ferry the team back to Raipur and Madam under heavy protection to a Govt guest house in
Maneswar, Haryana next to the NSG facility.

At Raipur, people were already winding up the camp.

********

The YLC2 pumping up at full power and GCI communications from the PLAAF base to its airborne
Flankers as well as the PAF GCI comms was duly noted by Phalcon02 and this fact passed
on up the decision making loop to NECC.

CCS consulted for five minutes and concurred that the clause stating no preemptive attack on
the chinese be withdrawn given the potent nature of the threat and need to cause the chinese
some embarassment too, as also ensure the protection of the egress helicopters which right now
were forming up in the recovery area for the escape to west bengal.

Unit777 had gotten one hour to withdraw and reload its nine tubes before the order
and targeting data came down at 4:20AM. it took about 5 minutes to program the missiles and
warm the systems up for imminent launch. Again the TELs crept out of the forest canopy and
inclined their tubes eastward.

One by one, nine missiles erupted and disappeared as blobs of flame into the dark eastern sky.

Approximately ten minutes later, the first wave of four missiles approached the flanker base
from the south, the second wave of five missiles took separate final approach paths from the
north. The alpha strike was designed to overload any SAM defences of the YLC site. short range
radar picked up the bogies 10km out flying low and fast at the treetops. Both Tor batteries
tracking radars picked up targets and moved to engage, unleashing nine of the sleek
VLS interceptor missiles five to the north and four to the south. Regardless of paper claims
which the PLAAF had been unable to verify, the Tor system was not really built to deal with
mach2.5 low-RCS low-level multiple quadrant targets ...esp as the brahmos began their evasive
3D S-curve manouvers to increase the crossing velocity and complicate the intercepts. Only
two brahmos were knocked out and another suffered a marginal blow which sent it into the ground.
The remaining six Brahmos bored in from all points of the compass on the YLC2 antenna and its
attached trailer which belatedly was now being shut off and attempting to move away. however the
IIR seekers of the Brahmos saw it clearly against the ground clutter and other vehicles nearby
and didnt miss the mark. nearly 2 tons of high explosive left a huge crater and little else
intact.

At 4:30AM the PAF-PLAAF detachment lost its final element of GCI coverage. The PAF acting cmdr
urgently radioed his pilots of the situation and ordered a cautious racetrack patrol just
north of Dhaka. Col Li ordered his pilots to land immediately and await further orders..he wasnt
about to commit them to a blind night fight without even a semblence of ground cover. He noted
with some malice the Pak deputy commanders action and hoped the Pakis learnt a good lesson.
The total absense of any indian a.c so far or attempt to attack his parked a/c with missiles
convinced him the indians just wanted to shut the radar down. Done for the night, Col Li made
sure to relocate to a dispensary on the premises to treat some 'wounds' from the Brahmos attack
though his trailer being 400m away on a cable had escaped the blasts around the antenna. He
figured that would be the safest place to spend the rest of the miserable night.

******

NECC continued to get a constant stream of updates as the twin Phalcons noted the destruction
of the last remaining big radar, the patrol pattern of the Falcons and the four Flankers withdrawing
for a landing. [continued below]
Last edited by Singha on 25 Dec 2004 09:43, edited 1 time in total.
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

[continued..]

For OpRaven Cmdr Sinha had also managed to report some more detailed
status from the air soon as they crossed into indian airspace, been greeted by a screen of
scrambled Bisons and the need for radio silence was rendered un-necessary.

CCS considered the matter for a few minutes with mainly a contended sounding Sen in the air
and PM Arora sharing their thoughts. Sen had founded a huge cache of tasty food onboard and
with the success of Raven appeared very genial, on the ground he suspected his wife kept tabs
on his overeating through other unknown spies in the CCS(!) but aboard the NEACP with only
Dighe another notorious gourmand, he felt totally safe.

There was a consensus that the time that with the main objective of the nights work wrapped up
the time had come to spring the trap shut and mete out some severe punishment with the hope
of collapsing morale in certain key enemy units. With the enemy being effectively radar blind
with lots of planes in the air groping around, this was too good an opportunity to miss especially
as blame could always be laid on someone trying to attack Madam's outgoing air convoy later.

Accordingly Air Commodore Basra was soon on the line to both Phalcon's transmitting a slightly
revised rules of engagement and mission objectives. The plan to launch a air attack to finish the
Hedayatpur camp after the Raven people departed was scratched as the diversionary group
reported the guest houses as empty and scores of freed political prisoners would be running around
trying to escape from the devastated jail block. He refilled his coffee cup and sat back, hoping
things would work out.

*******

At 8,000ft amidst the hills of Meghalaya Biswas and all the WSOs got the orders from the Phalcon
datalink on one of his datacomm MFDs and read them via the internal intercom to Jacob. A short
prayer was involuntary as he noted the strange look in Jacobs eyes again. Snapping out some crisp
orders on short range radio, the big plane lurched as the afterburner was applied and long tongues
of red flame shot from the nozzles.....the unit was flying in two snakes of eight each, now four
snakes of four each formed, and the snakes lengthened as the gap increased. the distance between
each snake grew to 2km.

At mach1.5 and increasing, all sixteen aircraft emerged from ground clutter and flew on a frontage
of 8 km wide towards the south, straight for Dhaka.

350km away to the east, the eight Flankers of #39 biding their time had been refueled by a Midas
half and hour before and like attack dogs finally freed from their leash erupted from the NC Hills
and sped down towards the south on a line from the north-east. In Silchar, four more ready Flankers
left the runway to form a flying reserve.

The twelve Falcons north of Dhaka continued their racetrack patrol in three units of four each, rotating
clockwise in a ellipse with each group keeping equidistant along the permeter of the ellipse from the
one ahead and behind it. This permitted most of the time, their vulnerable tail quadrants to be covered
by the following group. However the range and sophistication of the APG66 radar fell rather short of
state of the art in 2008.

The four-headed four-teethed hydra continued the approach as the distance closed to 100km, Jacob
called out again and they started climbing to a level around 10,000ft higher than the Falcons
orbiting at 20,000ft. One minute and the climb was complete and distance was now 60km, speed around
Mach1.5....the Snakes suddenly moved smoothly into two groups of eight each. First one into a hard
right turn followed by a curving anticlockwise turn to the left...a large ellipse, higher and
faster than the one below, encompassing the smaller ellipse entirely began to be described in the air.
The second group turned left and then started describing a clockwise ellipse from the opposite
direction at the same height.

The cloud of Bars radars suddenly went active as the RWRs of the Falcons flying both towards and away
from the Flankers started blaring out the warning tones and the APG66 picked up the first
look at the enemy force.

Within the next few seconds the leading eight Flankers released 16 active radar Adders and 16 IR-Alamos
at the two groups of four Falcons on the far side of the ellipse coming towards the meeting
engagement. the faster Alamos were given a lag of few seconds to let the Adders speed up and begin their
screaming dives .....

The trailing eight Flankers gave chase to the third party of four Falcons
who had been on the near side of the ellipse and going away from the attack. Rapidly overhauling the
slower Falcons from their radar blind rear quadrant (it looked like they were trying to run rather
than turn and fight), 6 Adders and 6 Alamos lanced out into the lightening eastern sky. The
last two Flankers Amitabh and Shanker being armed with four ground attack munitions and only two
Archers each just brought up the rear and waited.

Like a pack of disturbed sparrows the Falcons scattered all over the sky weaving and ducking the
swarm of agile 40G missiles bearing down remorselessly in Mach4.0 dives. It wasnt a fair fight,
fast modern missiles in quantity fired from a superior locational and energy position, active
radar guidance and enormously powerful Bars radars providing semi-active updates to the IR homers.

One by one, fireballs began to flicker like agitated fireflies below the rotating circus of death.
one by one, the fragments of downed Falcons began to litter the towns and villages far below. A
few managed to bail out, most didnt. No Falcon survived the carnage intact. A particularly lucky
one , damaged and attempting to escape to the east had the misfortune to intersect its path with
a single missile fired from a #39 plane whose eight plane formation had now sprung the trapdoor
shut from the east.

years of large scale combined exercises, years of top notch ACMI and DACT training, a no-holds
barred training regime including extensive night flying and radar directed blind fighting,
far superior technology and situational awareness , years of getting beat
around and kicked on the arse by #20 seniors like Jacob for every little flaw had finally came
together in one blinding moment of decisive victory. Biswas uttered another prayer being a religious man
and tried to avoid the temptation to spy on his Boss's expression yet again..he didnt feel upto that
immediately.

there was one final act left in the nights proceedings. While Jacob, Das, other six of
the leading eight Flankers and two of the second pack darted for home at Mach1.5 as a loose arrowhead,
insolent in their total superiority, Amitabh and Shanker escorted by four of their brood began
their attack run on the Falcon airfield. The Litening3-I pod being able to lase ground targets from
40,000ft permitted an attack from well above the bubble provided by the Crotale2000 batteries.

Eight long black canisters equipped with a laser nose and tail guidance sourced
from Rafael dropped slowly off the level planes and started picking up speed to nearly mach1.
As the bomb images descended below 20kft on the radar MFD into the range of ground based SAMs,
both the Flankers activated huge classified offensive jamming pods 20 feet long slung in canoe
fairings along the centerline. Crotale radar blacked out and so did a short range ATC radar the
PAF deputy had managed to activate a few minutes ago. The MANPADS shooters deployed in the
perimeter saw nothing in the black sky and their weapons were anyway unable to track very fast
moving objects.

Homing in on three large hangers holding the bulk of the Falcons on the ground , sensors deployed
a aerosol cloud of a explosive fuel mixture somne 200 meters above the impact points and milisecs
later a igniter kicked in and huge FAE fireballs struck like a hammer onto the chosen targets
collapsing the buildings, igniting fires in fuel tanks, cooking off ordnance and laying waste to
anyone in the vicinity.

PAFs Falcon deployment effectively ceased to exist from this point. The desired point had
been made. One hour later ISRO imagery began to reach NECC on the extent of damage.

#20 landed with the breaking dawn to a tumultuous reception by the ground crew. Jacob said a
cordial good night to all and gracefully withdrew from the improntu party. After many years,
he used the complimentary STD facility and called up Father Thomas...

Col Li solicitiously commiserated with the woes of his counterpart and immediately arranged to
send all his doctors and medical supplies to the devastated PAF base. He himself showed up later
in the day to attend a prayer service for all the casualties.

******

TV address to the nation by PM Arora
8:00 AM, all channels

My dear countrymen and our friends in the international community, last night India took a
decisive step to correct the high unfavourable and problematic security situation on our
eastern border. Gen Jaffar the illegal ruler of Bangladesh has not heeded our and UNO calls
to restore democratic rule at the earliest in Dhaka and get back into the barracks where
he belongs. He has instead invited two of our neighbours for protection and carried on with
support to NE terrorists, infact increased such support.

With some heavy loss of life, we have last night rescued the legitimate democratic ruler of
Bangladesh, Madam ... from her illegal detention by the Bangladesh army. What further steps
we take will be at her invitation. A message from her to the Bangladeshi people and the world
will follow now.

We have also selectively destroyed certain radar sites owned by Pak and Chinese forces in
BD to facilitate the mission. We warn them again that their presence will not be further
tolerated, they should withdraw with dignity at the earliest. We can also confirm the
destruction of twelve PAF F-16s in a fight north of Dhaka with a indian escort force of
fighters covering the rescue partys flight to India.

Jai Hind.


*********

TV address by Madam ... to the world media
8:10AM , all channels

My dear Bangladeshi fellow citizens and friends in India. First let me thank my friend PM
Arora for giving me this opportunity to appear before you so soon after my rescue yesterday
night. As the elected ruler of Bangladesh I am the legitimate and internationally recognized
head of state and my detention and overthrow of my Govt was a illegal and criminal act.

I hereby declare Gen Jaffar and his entire staff as traitors to Bangladesh and to be
prosecuted as war criminals for their crimes against the people. They should immediately lay
down their arms and free all political and army detainees. They must allow a UN
commission to vet the security situation and laying down of arms before my govt would retake
office in Dhaka. Failing that within 24 hours, I call upon India and other members of the
world community to help me remove by force this regime from their office. I hereby request
the indian govt to launch a second liberation war if need be to restore democratic and
people's rule in Bangladesh. My dear Bangladeshi brothers and sisters! I shall remain safe as
a guest of the indian govt for now just like our late founder my departed husband, never for
a moment think you are alone, I am always with you and soon with the help of all our friends
we shall be a free nation again. Now is the time to rise up and throw off the shackles of
your oppressors.

I also demand that pakistan and china withdraw their military delegations immediately and
unconditionally and stop interfering in our internal affairs. Failing that within 24 hrs I am
also authorizing military action by the liberation forces of bangladesh against these intruders.

Finally I thank those who risked their lives to rescue a helpless old woman and offer my sincere
condolences to those who gave their lives to save mine. Their names shall be inscribed with honour
and respect soon infront of the Dhaka parliament. I expect their bodies to be treated as per
international law and handed over to Red Cross immediately. Dishonour to their bodies will be
treated as another charge against Gen Jaffar and his entire staff during their forthcoming trial.


Long live Bangladesh!

**********

10:00AM
Press release Pakistan airforce ISPR
Air Commodore Mastbull Butt

We have received reports in the media that India has been claiming twelve of our aircraft
destroyed near Dhaka last night. We totally deny all these fabricated lies and fantasies of
our war-mongering neighbour. In reality, PAF forces fighting a numerically superior enemy
managed to shoot down 6 intruding indian sukhois in exchange for one F-16 slightly damaged.
The wreckages all seem to have fallen into rivers and marshes and not possible to retrieve
and provide serial nos at present. Our search teams are scouring the countryside.
IAF also launched a cowardly and unprovoked attack on our base near Dhaka. Two empty hangers
have been destroyed with some loss of life, no aircraft or munitions have been destroyed.
God willing, we shall soon extract our revenge for his cowardly backstabbing and teach a
lesson to our enemies. We urge our pakistani and bangladeshi brothers not to be taken in by
enemy propaganda but remain confident in the Fiza'ya who are sworn to defend our land to the
last drop of blood.

************

8:20AM

Unknown lurker Schopra77 posts details obtained from IAF cousin. Removed at 8:25 AM by BR admins.
J____ starts 'speculation' thread in response at 8:30AM. Number of views quickly crosses 10,000 by
the evening as more news filters in. UBB indexing error takes down BR during the night.
Massive loss of indian productivity all around the globe as people experience severe withdrawal
symptoms.

************

10:15AM
certain pakistani internet forums

SU30MKI shootdown thread (200 views, 21 posts)

"my cousin just phoned from chaklala and he's been in touch with the boys in Dhaka, apparently
we pasted them good and proper, our superb ACM tactics and the ineptitude of the indian
pilots make a potent combination. Quick lets run over to AFM and expose their vile propaganda!
Let the dudes show even ONE photo of the claimed shootdowns if they can, else all their claims
arent worth jackshit"

***********
10:15AM

NEACP01 touches down at Palam, occupants departed to NECC for many meetings. Sen forked away
an assistant to organize some hot food from the radisson hotel and some sweets from bengali
sweet house in vasant kunj.

***********

9:30PM

Pakistan prime minister holds a teleconference with the US secy of state and requests on a urgent
basis the transfer of two F16 squadrons from AMARC on a as-is basis so long as they are flyable
and equivalent or better than Block10.

US Secy promises to consider the matter very favourably keeping in mind Pakistans unflinching and
generous help in the continuing war on terror.

************
Y I Patel
BRFite
Posts: 781
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30

Post by Y I Patel »

The War Council – VI

Now Shivji asked the question that had been trembling on so many lips: “Rajitji, what is the news from the home front? How are the people taking all these developments?”

Even the habitually cheerful countenance of Rajitji clouded over, and he searched for words to deliver the bitter message. Shivji saw the hesitation; “Go on, Rajit sahib. We know the news is not good. But we are very interested in finding out the unvarnished truth”

Shivji, as you know there have been some ugly rumors and messages that have started circulating… there have always been people who have said that your party and allies are sheltering Bangladeshis to play vote bank politics, now there are also murmurs that India is seeing yet another region succumbing to terrorism as soon as your party came to power.

She flashed angrily at this, and addressed her response directly to Solaniki: “How can your people spread such baseless and malicious talk at such a time? This is so irresponsible!” Even a JNU political science professor could have told her that would not go very far with Solanki, who had survived decades of vilification. However, he knew the gravity of the situation and was civil enough in his reply “Madam the people are just trying to add two and two together in the absence of any coherent message from your ruling alliance. Sure our people are picking up the murmurs and amplifying them, but you think I or anyone else can stop them?” She regained her composure some, but everyone could see she had been stung.

Shilendra Ghosh, the speaker of the Lok Sabha and a member of a ruling coalition party stepped in “These Bangladeshi migrants are poor harmless fellows – they are our Mexicans! Haven’t you heard how the American President wants to regularize illegal migrants because of all their economic contributions? Even you gentlemen talked about developing some sort of mechanism for legal migration into India for work! Now you have changed your tune!”

Jha saw the slippery slope they were all headed on, and turned a pleading gaze at Maheshji. When the cousins fell out, the always turned to Bhishma, didn’t they?

Maheshji chose to address Shivji in his interjection “Solankiji has a valid point, you know. People want to know what their government has been doing to deal with this latest menace to the country, and so far we have had a very disjointed response. Politics abhors a vacuum, and if you don’t take some initiative, others will be happy to take it for you. At the least, you have to take cognizance of some very serious errors the ruling coalition has made”

Anyone else daring to say that would have been shriveled to peanut size in response, but Maheshji could get away with a lot…

Serious errors, Maheshji?

Yes, Digheji. Let me see if I can list them: firstly, there has been no coherent public response at the continuing terrorist incidents and what the government intends to do about it. Clearly Bangladesh is emerging as the origin of these events, but the public is kept completely in dark about what the government intends to do. Now I know this is intentional, but the public is getting an entirely different message from the inaction: that the government intends to do nothing about these outrages.

Secondly, very confusing messages are being sent to the international community. We do not need to tell them about the radiological dispersion devices we have discovered, but certainly the international community is not comprised of fools. They know we have to do something to placate our own people, and when we put our nuclear forces on alert without consulting or without taking any other public stances, everyone gets terrified that we are planning something extreme. So you can see Ambassadors beginning to circle around Race Course Road.

But we know we are not going to get any cooperation or understanding anyway, so why bother?

We may not get any cooperation, but we can get active uncooperation if the international community feels surprised. If there is one thing that diplomats around the world hate more than anything else, it is surprises. They can deal with bad news, but surprises make them feel inadequate and that is not good news. We have a clear precedent for this – the Russians have always been more supportive of our nuclear programs than others have been, but even they were livid at me when Pokhran II happened. Had we told them about it even a few hours before the event took place, their reaction would have been softer. A communications policy is the first thing a responsible government goes for, but that is something that has been sadly lacking so far.

But we have to keep many of our discoveries secret, and if we take a public stance that is contradicts our intentions, won’t we be harming our credibility?

Not really – our message has to be that the events in Bangladesh pose a grave threat to our internal security due to acts of terrorism originating from Bangladesh, and that we intend to take any steps necessary for our self defense. Then we can have defense commentators leak articles on this being another Kashmir, which would indicate to others what our likely course of action might be. If they end up being misled into thinking that we will not be attacking Bangladesh, then it is simply a matter of them getting signals crossed.

But coming back to errors, there is still one very serious issue that has not been addressed: the fact that terrorists sneaked in a radiological dispersal device into our country with the clear intention of using it clearly implies that someone has employed “first use” of NBC weapons against us. Now we publicly claim our doctrine is No First Use, but that we will respond to any NBC attack on us. The terrorists and their masters who smuggled the weapons into India already know that the weapons have been intercepted – so now they will be thinking, why aren’t the Indians doing anything about this? And they could come to two possible conclusions: either we are preparing for a nuclear strike somewhere; or we are too frightened to respond. Both of these pose a very clear and urgent danger to our national security.

So you are saying we must do something about this quickly?

Yes, we have to take some action that the jehadis and their masters can read as being our retaliation for their intended use of NBC weapons on our soil. Not doing so does incalculable harm to our security.

Now Dighe stepped in.

That’s why I have been urging a lightening quick strike with a few brigades, to teach them a lesson!

Wait Digheji, it is not that simple. First, think about Kargil and all those soldiers sent to their death because NDA had to show that they were doing something. (Solanki and Jha squirmed a bit at that but kept quiet) In this case, we just heard Rizwi describing that they actually want us to do something hasty. If we send in a few unprepared armoured brigades, they will be hammered by all those anti tank weapons they have managed to smuggle in. Secondly, even if we do manage a successful punitive raid, what would that achieve? Against Pakistan, such attacks from a cold start can be used to capture vital territory or inflict real political damage. That won’t work in Bangladesh – what will winning a few kilometers in their territory mean? Will they agree to send those jehadis back if we hammer them a bit? Finally, what will the international community think, and what will be the effect on our economy? If we go to war, we have to go with a clear gameplan of what we will do when the shooting stops. Anything else will be a recipe for a political disaster like Iraq.

Speaking of Iraq, what should we do with the Americans? They have started becoming very interested…

Senji, the ironic thing is that this crisis has all the hallmarks of international terrorism getting its hands on WMDs. If the Americans get the full picture, they will definitely want to solve the problem. Our difficulty is that they will come in with two divisions within a week, stage a stunning march on to Dacca, then they will make an absolute hash of the post-war situation and we will be left with a huge mess on our doorsteps. So the best course of action would be to let them have part of the story – the part concerning international terrorism and its dangers to the stability of SE Asia, and keep them in complete blindness about the nuclear part. That way, if we can show that we can handle the situation ourselves, they will stay out of our hair. In case you want a rough precedent, think about tiny Maldives. Some mercenaries wanted to take over that country, the stakes were too small for US to be bothered with, and Rajivji asked me to stay in close contact with the American Ambassador. We worked out an understanding overnight, and you know the rest of the story. That was admittedly on a much smaller scale, but it can be done.

So it all boils down to a good communications policy. There is one more part to it. Aroraji has already made it clear that a regime change is what our political objective should be. But we have to sell that regime change to three vital audiences: the Bangladehis, our own people (to prepare them for war), and to the international community. Indiraji took the better part of a year to get all the pieces in place. We may not have such a luxury today, but we need to make a start.

Rajitji stepped in: the Pakistanis, being who they are, will never be far from rape, plunder, and murder. The current regime in Bangladesh invited them over, so it will be directly responsible for all Pakistani atrocities commited on Bangla soil. What we need to do is start a Joi Bongla News Network that would help us articulate the need for a regime change. We also need such a news network to build up an India friendly voice in Bangladesh who can articulate a brighter future for that benighted country.

How would we establish such a news network?

Now that old wolfish grin was back… oh, I know a few network executives who will be happy to help out!

Now Jha brought up the issue of declaring national emergency: Dighe sahib, our understanding with you was that some kind of a declaration of war would be forthcoming, which would be followed by declaration of national emergency. Is that still your plan?

Dighe looked around, and was about to answer when Shivji stepped in: Jha sahab, it looks like a more deliberate approach needs to be adopted, in light of all the new information we have received today…

In that case, Shivji, we will not be able to support a declaration of national emergency. We do not want the emergency powers to be abused in any way.

Dighe interjected now: but Jha sahab, we have already started making several high level personnel changes based on our understanding with you about national emergency!

Jha responded: Digheji, this is India. Do you think those officials you replaced took you on your word? Many of them came right to us and asked for our support – as you know, Shastri sahab’s brother is a very powerful politician in our party, and it was not easy convincing him and other well connected people about the necessity for firm actions. As far as we are concerned, there will be no Vishnu Bhagwats, and you can count on that.

The meeting was winding down, and a some people were pretty unhappy at the outcome, but they would have to live with that… Shivji, can you accompany Digheji and Senji to brief Aroraji on our meeting today? I think there are a lot of action items that Aroraji can start implementing, based on what we have learnt here.

Yes, Madam. We will go and meet Aroraji right away. We understand he has kept his time open for us, in anticipation of this meeting…

And so, the war council ended.

[Added later]
I see Singha is back in full glory! Welcome back!! Trust the settling in is proceeding smoothly! There are some contradictions between Singha's posts and mine, but I'll let the concluding post of the War Council Series stay. Perhaps someone can reconcile the two, because the general thrust is not too different. In any case, looks like shooting has started. So time for politicians to take a back seat :)
Last edited by Y I Patel on 25 Dec 2004 10:40, edited 2 times in total.
Kakkaji
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3866
Joined: 23 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by Kakkaji »

YIP:

Great work! Keep it coming.

One small quibble. Your character is saying that Bangladeshi actions are pan-Islamic, and not India-specific. I tend to disagree. Granted that the latest generation of Jihadis has been nurtured in pan-Islamic jihad thru Saudi-sponsored, and ISI-managed Madarssas, but there is a strong undercurrent of anti-Indianism present in Bangladesh right from the days before partition and thru its days as erstwhile East Pakistan.

The genesis lies, IMHO, in the attempted division of Bengal earlier in the 20th century (under Lord Curzon IIRC). That British colonialist stratagem sowed the seeds of communalism in Bengal that led to strong support for partition by Muslim Bengalis. The small overpopulated slice of land they eventually got as East Pakistan after partition was entirely insufficient in their view. If you add up the populations of present day West Bengal and the Indian northeastern states to that of Bangladesh, the Muslims are still a majority of the total. It is this entire area that Suhrawardy and his ilk wanted as East Pakistan that would later have become Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi elite or at least the BNP and army part of it, IMHO. still believes that all of West Bengal and the northeastern states should be under their political control, and hence their core grievance/ motivation is not pan-Islamic, but anti-India.

The only pan-Islamic jihadis in South Asia, I believe, are the ones from Afghanistan. The others are mostly India-haters.

Just my thoughts. I invite comments from others more knowledgeable than me on this subject.
Sunil
BRFite
Posts: 634
Joined: 21 Sep 1999 11:31

Post by Sunil »

Ah.. the sage speaks again...

Welcome back MTS... aap likho miyan ... we'll take care of the rest.

YIP give me the signal for when you want Op. Teram Shehr to begin.
JCage
BRFite
Posts: 1562
Joined: 09 Oct 2000 11:31

Post by JCage »

MTS and YIP hats off bhailog,

MTS amazing, simply amazing- am rereading it. Really good stuff. Li is hilarious- can we have a jhaapad to the Chicoms as well?

Something subtle on the grounds of blinding the Flankers and hacking into their comms to get the message across, no need for shootdowns, if you dont feel like it.

YIP - you and MTS make an amazing combination. Man this thread is a gem.
Yerna
BRFite
Posts: 108
Joined: 17 Oct 2003 11:31

Post by Yerna »

The secretive work on the land-attack version of Brahmos had finally cleared its first
battle test. for long only existing in the wild eyed speculation of nationalist internet
forums
, it had in reality been worked on in parallel right from day1 and been tested
disguised as a ship-attack version in between tests of the real ASM version to 'soothe'
those that needed to be soothed.
Its not secretive anymore sinhaji. while you were on vacation BrahMos land attack version was successfully tested and it hit bulls eye. Its was all over the papers :D
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

Indian slain seen near Dhaka

Dhaka (NSN) - bodies of 5 Indian soldiers involved in the recent incident near Dhaka were shown to reporters by the Bangladesh military yesterday. The bodies were in most cases stripped and had extensive injuries, not all of them consistent with gunshot or blast damage. Atleast two other bodies were seen where the heads and genitals appeared to have been missing. The media were shown around the roadblock location where the action is supposed to have happened by BDF Colonel Usman Ashraf, who denied that the Indian force had penetrated the nearby military base and suggested that Madam ---'s recent press announcement was mere propaganda and dismissed it out of hand.

"Yes, the Indians did attack, but we took good care of them" Colonel Ashraf declared proudly, "we gave them a bloody nose!"

Local villagers reported that BDF troops accompanied by foreigners had that morning hung the bodies of the Indians from trees and mutilated them, forcing villagers to watch. It is reported that over ten Indian bodies were seen, with one man apparently still alive but badly wounded before the hanging started. This story could not be independently corroborated due to the curfew imposed in the neighbouring areas. Similarly, the base itself was off limits with no reporters allowed within 10kms.

On asked about reports of PAF losses in the incident, Ashraf denied all knowledge. He said that soon the debris of the Indian airforce losses would be found in the rivers and marshes. He produced the serial number of a helicopter, believed to have been an Mi-17 which he said had been shot down whilst it attempted to cross the border by the alert air defence forces.

The situation in Dhaka and the rest of South Asia remains tense.
Y I Patel
BRFite
Posts: 781
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30

Post by Y I Patel »

The timing and location were clearly for shock rather than effect - at 10 AM in the morning, across the bustis dotting East Yamuna para of Delhi, scores of CRPF vans pulled up and started rounding up inhabitants after demanding proof of citizenship. The news spread like wildfire; soon there were live feeds on national and international media about Bangladeshi migrant workers being rounded up for deportation. The rounded up persons were put on special trains headed towards the India-Bangladesh border.

The trains were met with blaring publicity on their treck across Northern India, to the Siliguri corridor. There, against violent protests organized by communist political parties, the migrants were transferred into BSF vans. The vans crossed the fenced no-man's land and disgorged their occupants.

Then, the next rounds started.

The net effect was like trying to plug the flow of Mandakini, but the political effect was nothing short of electric...
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

hacking into the network

Post by rajpa »

The Jungle Room. (Suite 2491. Second Floor. Hyatt Regency.)

Lots of smoke. Possibly hash he thought.

"Papa was also on the cruiseboat, darling. I told him, Papa, I am going to get some sun. There was that cute Israeli guy who was giving me D-looks. So...".

Party.

"Hi. Never seen you in the jungle. Roar!"

"Am I supposed to meet someone here or something." he asked that friendly animal, taking a wild pot.

"I am here at your service, Guruji!" She exclaimed. "You know I have been watching you for sometime. You are a friend of Farid, and he is my best pal. Friend's friends." She shook hands.

He was feeling a little rustled, tense and bored. "Can I get something decent to drink." He said.

"A Mojito, Sir." The bartender.

"What's your name sweetie." To her.

"Amilya Suriyanto. Or Emily. Sweetie is good too. Or, even locsmith." She laughed out loud. LOL.

Noisy place.

"There is a call for you, Miss." Bartender to her.

She spoke for sometime.

Later, the bartender gave her a laptop. She connected to the phone, opened up gnutella, downloaded an mpeg file, wrote to CD and gave him the CD.

"Here, Guruji. A nice little song for you from Celine Dion, mademoiselle au Paree." She laughed out loud. LOL.

"I thought people were mourning." He said.

"Yes, we are waiting for Rakesh."

"I heard your car was stolen." Rakesh said. "Did the cops at D4 give you a good explanation?"

Guru was not very surprised. He nodded. "Towed away, picked from police station. Pretty quick for Indian police!"

"Amilya is a great DJ. You must play her CD collection." He left, to talk to the others.

Steganography:

He switched on his home PC. The CD had just one song. It was an old number, called Didi, some Algerian or French singer, he remembered. Nothing seemed very unusual about it.

He must have played it a hundred times and listened very closely, forwards and backwards some times. Backmasking? he asked himself.

He thought he should call up the people at D4, but they had prohibited any approach from his side till that date.

Then he remembered his college thesis on Steganography. He opened up a visual debugging tool and set to work. He noticed that the least significant bits of the song were ignored by the media player. He cracked the code, and he got a small pdf file with text in Arabic.

"Afsana, Can you translate this text for me?"

"It is an essay on e-commerce in India. At the end, it has a bibliography of references. The references do not have human names ascribed to them. It reads GRGN (Shfq) P3F2F3P4, NIDA (Frhn) B35B4F2L4, CYBD (Husn) MSF3F4F5C2R3, TIDL (Mqbl) B2F3F4P2C4. What is all this Guru bhaiyya?"

It did not take him long to figure out.
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

:twisted: Jcageji aap ne mere muu se baat chin li

the chinis are due for a slapping in my next installment. let me think of
some good ways.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

p2p

Post by rajpa »

Farid never liked his cousins. Sure, he was from the dreaded intel agency and had to cooperate with whoever they sent across. Even though they said they were on a highly secure mission, he had never heard of operatives like these. With all the information fed from his friends at the Jungle Room, he still had no clue till it happened that these people were friends of the Sheikh himself. He was quite surprised all that they wanted was to listen to CDs loaded with MP3s.

All right let me try again.

Farid never did like his cousins. He was a sleeper from intel, while they were sent by the Sheikh, and he was to be their conduit for information, where his counterparts from the northern areas sent information through the organization's channels, and he passed the info on to 'his cousins' informally.

One more shot.

Farid loved his wife. He was a double mole for the not very well known Z9 branch of the state police, recruited very artfully, through a great coincidence of his daughter inviting Farid for dinner, by Mr Sehgal, and later to be handled with care by his daughter.

So why did the blasts happen?

The simple strategy was to create a condition of economic panic in the country. The same philosophy as that of the 9/11 attacks. This time, the Sheikh was going to use the help of his friends from the Jihad days. And with glee, they had planned the situation in NE and the later "economic meltdown", it was Kargil and 9/11 redux. The fall of the stock markets, the death of outsourcing etc. It was sufficiently hands off to keep them out of the roving eyes of the international community and yet good enough to cause their big neighbour to lose face, and how! Happy days ahead.

It nearly worked.

The cunning strategists behind the plan had limited time though due to some "exigencies", which had to do with the parliament and the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. It was rumored among those who knew and left alive that it was a meeting of minds, a grand coming together of all that mattered for the truly faithful to destroy the cowardly infidels once and for all.

It was rumored that this conversation between minds was carried out via Video Conferencing to a certain province in the northern areas and also that those who were witnesses to the process by way of carrying out the plans were executed.

Except perhaps for one.

Meanwhile, in the big neighbouring country, it was agreed that in case of 'emergencies' somebody completely 'innocent' aka Guru was to be used to pass information between Farid and Katrina. Time had not come for that yet. Farid had never shared any piece of information with her so far.

The channel was to be the secure part of the chat server. There were only three identities available on the chat server. Everything that Farid did as part of this network was to be in line with his identity as a wannabe socialite playboy. And that was how they could pass info to each other as well.

Then there was this sudden break. His wife to be had come to his hometown and he instantly proposed to her. His bosses had approved of it, that conforming to a similar pattern of earlier operatives.

The Jungle room was the letter drop. It came via p2p networks. All the code was actually travelling in popular mp3 songs. The feds and others were not aware of it because they had too much trouble navigating the p2p networks anyway. This was a world which was at peace with complete chaos. No digital signatures, no real identities, no real IPs - the cursed proxies, only songs and *****. This was worse than hawala.

Farid informed locsmith that the CD had to be given to him or to Guru and only once to Guru. And he had defined the situation as well - the first time that Guru came to the Jungle Room.

All that Farid was aware of was that some operatives currently staying with him had to be fed with info gathered via said p2p networks. Where he went to, with his cousins, he was to learn more. Much more.

All that Guru was aware of was there were some nice parties in town.

After reading the PDF, Guru was in a state of shock. He went to the Jungle room once more. locsmith was not there. There was this nice thing, she gave him a cold stare and pushed off into a corner. He sank into a couch and went to sleep.
Harish
BRFite
Posts: 142
Joined: 27 Dec 2004 10:30
Location: Bharat

India vs China/Pakistan wargaming and battle scenarios

Post by Harish »

Can anyone point me to realistic India-Pak and India-China wargames or possible war situations, and force and strategy comparisons at current force levels. I am a newcomer here, so please point me to where I can find the links if already on BR. If you can provide external links and/or complete analyses, that'd be great. Thx.
Sharma
BRFite
Posts: 108
Joined: 10 Aug 2004 02:02
Location: Quarter Guard
Contact:

Post by Sharma »

While reading all the posts it seems almost all of our star writers are depending lot upon Hindon Air Base for any classified flights out of Delhi. Some even mentioned presence of fighter a/c at Hindon. Please note that Hindon A/F base has been rendered useless for any VIP or fighter a/c movement courtsey Delhi State Govt. MCD( Municipal Corporation of Delhi) has set up a large Integrated Frieght Complex near Hindon which houses almost all the slaughterhouses and butcheries of Delhi along with fish and meat market. This means lots of Birds and lots of Bird hits. Even UP govt under whose juridiction Hindon A/F comes has blasted all the laws prventing congested inhabitations around airports. Many legal and illegal housing socities and colonies have emerged all around the a/f base. Though Officials at Hindon have installed Germany fame Zon Gun to scare away birds but these are also helpless. Mig 27s( 9 Sq- Wolf Pack, 2 Sq- Winged Arrow and 18 Sq- Flying Bullets) were here till 1997 but IAF closed it since then due to high rate of bird hits and crashes. Since 1997, Hindon is home to Mi-17 helicopters and light transport air craft but a strict no to any VIP movement or fighter a/c. The IAF Aircrew Examination Board also uses the premises.

And now to rub salts on wounds UP and Delhi Govt have joined hands in making common dumping ground for wastes of Delhi & Ghaziabad near Hindon A/F base. So it means all over.

After 9/11 and Prakram Govt asked IAF to revive Hindon but even GoI could not mend the grave situation around Hindon. So end point of this story is that our Capital city still depends on Ambala( 15 min for Jaguars to reach Delhi) and Agra( 10 mins for whatever they have) for air cover in case of any immediate requisition.

So please note that you should shun Hindon as any operation a/f base and use Ambala, Agra, Sirsa or Palam( for transport a/c).
Whats Out:-
Image
Image
Image

Whats In:-
Image
[/img]
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

11pm PMs residence
occasion: CCS + joint_chief meeting

Arora: I had a telephonic talk today with the chinese general secy Mr Jiangtao . So I called you all in to go over the details and discuss the future on a range of issues.
As it stands today, we have Madam safe and secure and we have her go ahead to restore democratic rule by any means to BD, but ofcourse we must look into the wider picture and try to evolve a soln that maximize our gains and minimizes our risk of losses. At the moment our military deployment is completed and we have a whole range of plans on the table, but I dont see a urgent need to launch a all-out invasion of BD before we have had the chance to apply pain in smaller areas to see how the enemy reacts.

Dighe: I concur so far...

Miglani: Please go on...

Arora: So I took the initiative to setup a teleconference with Mr. Jiangtao to discuss bilateral security issues. he doesnt speak in english with foreign leaders (though our agencies confirm he is a very in it) so as not to get cornered verbally by more clever native speakers and not to betray any personal emotion, so our exchange was of necessity a bit halting via the interpreter. As I had expected he condemned our attack on their radar facility and demanded some form of compensation, which I refused and said in return that we precisely destroyed an item that was directly threatening the safe egress of our rescue force and deliberately did not target his other air and ground assets. I added that had we really wanted, we could have taken out most of his air component on the ground after the radar got taken out. He changed the subject immediately thereafter. Our talks then turned to preserving peace and tranquility under the panchsheel principles on our ladakh and north-east borders, he agreed on that point and said it was in neither countries economic or political interest to 'disturb' the hitherto peaceful border areas, however the chinese govt felt duty bound to respect its treaty of protection with Gen Jaffar because treaties were not signed in haste and were always respected by countries who valued their word....

Sen: *looking up from wolfing down a large mutton samosa* Hmmmph tell that to the pakis who they left to die in the sky not two days ago!

Arora: Indeed. they have always displayed the creeping attack approach. whenever there is no resistance they press forward, if we push back they stop and talk peace, if we let our guard down they start creeping forward again. Another of their favourite gambits , copied by the pakis also is to first create a problem then offer to solve the problem for a price. but these things were strategic novelties of the *1960s* so I think in course of time people have figured out how to deal with such tactics. To get back, he offered a reduction by 50% of the chinese ground detachment in BD if we reciprocated and similarly scaled back our forces in NE. He also offered to reduce 'substantially' the chinese naval presence in BD if we pulled back our three task forces for the bay of bengal. I asked what about pakistani forces - he replied he had no control over pakistani decisions and could not interfere in the internal matters of the pakistani ruling establishment. The treaties he said were not a tripartite treay but two bilateral ones between BD-Pak and BD-china and so he claimed to not even be aware of the contents of the BD-Pak treaty!!

Sen: Hmmph. he probably has a good idea how much our tinhorn general passes wind daily.

Dighe: clever - clever but predictable.

Arora: I told him clearly that as the senior partner and patron of pakistan, only he was a in a position to influence the rather wayward actions of the paki elites and it would be good for both india and china if pakistan's behaviour could be moderated. He said he had always been urging moderation in his regular talks with the general but there were limits to his influence and it wasnt as much as I had claimed.

I then made my main point of our meeting - BD needed to be restored to a free govt soon as possible , the top representative of that free govt was now in India and had openly called for a popular revolt and intervention by the world community, Gen Jaffar had no legitimacy and people who associated with his govt were against the tide of world opinion and rapidly 'losing face'. I offered a honourable settlement and a guarantee of non-interference by indian forces if the foreign legion in BD be withdrawn at their earliest convenience. I also rejected any linkage of withdrawal from BD to any concessions elsewhere or drawing down of Indian forces in the theatre. This was a cause and effect deployment and when the BD threat disappears and the rampant terrorism defeated, our forces would have no need to concentrate in such strength into the region.

He came back and said it would be difficult for him to push through any such proposals in the chinese CCS without a range of concessions by india because it would be seen as a 'retreat' and cause much anguish among the chinese people.

I injected a slight dose of nastiness at this juncture 'time is running out dear gen Secy' in the end he flatly rejected any idea of ending the adventure with a range of unspecified concessions by us in unrelated areas. and thats where it stands now.

Sen: so cutting aside by the politically correct verbiage, we need to include their theatre forces firmly now in the hitlist.

Miglani: there will be an impact on our burgeoning trade ties which today stands at $35 billion of bilateral trade.

Arora: that is not a large enough number for us to consider shifting our bigger national priorities which include preventing the entry of an external hegemon and its pet troublemaker into the bay of bengal region. that figure is also not big enough to make them pause and think twice.

Sen: Ok. so supposing we go all out, what can be expected of the dear stinking 'international community' led by you-know-who and the poodle dog ?

Miglani: we can expect a security council resolution attempted to be passed for sure calling for a immediate end to hostilities. the chinese themselves wont do it as it would look like a loss of face and looking for way out, the french will keep quiet and support whoever is the winner, the US-UK combine being mercantile minded will table this resolution - any instability in the far east economies as also within india has a ripple impact on their economies, which they can ill afford given the massive trade deficits the US has been racking up and the devaluation of the dollar. We had talked to premier Yasputin of Russia and gone over this scenario yesterday. A resolution calling for end to hostilities itself doesnt hurt us , if it comes to a resolution specifically targeted
at India, the russians have promised to veto it a couple of times. given the pace at which the UN works and the need to pass other resolutions of a general nature addressed to both sides before the troika of US-UK-china try to gang up on us, this should give us a 2-week window to drive our goals to closure. But Yasputinji was quite clear there are limits and they cannot indefinitely hold out alone and hurt themselves economically, so whatever we do would need to be a lightning campaign like the 1971 thing.

Sen: Ah 1971, god bless the good Gen Jacob!

Miglani: PM you can also expect a call from their president. But per our consensus no calls from the potus will be accepted during these kinds of crises that do not involve them directly. The standard and true answer will be the PM is now at secure location and unwilling to spare time.

Arora: hmmm...so Gen Sastry you have been busy working on various options ranging from simple hit-n-run cross border raids on terrorist camps to a combined arms offensive on Dhaka and Chittagong, can we take Dhaka in two weeks ?

Gen Sastry: We have been refining our intel via both human and techincal means to a very high level of detail and thus improving the reliability of our models over the past few weeks. Looking the deployed forces on both sides, the logistical situation - yes we can do it if additional IAF resources are freed from the western border. The one wildcard we dont like is if the chinese invade northern Myanmar from yunnan province and open a land corridor - we need a dagger in mizoram pointed at this channel and will need additional army resources mountain trained from northern command and artillery from south-western command.

Sen: consider it approved. send me the paperwork tomorrow if there's any.

Gen Sastry: no there's no paperwork, you will receive a email notification and you just need to reply agreed for archival purposes.

Sen: Bah...whose e-governance initiative was it? I like the old-school pen and paper methods!

Gen Sastry: you approved it yourself two years ago Sir , perhaps in a moment of weakness? *laughter around table*

Sen: ok ok , lets move on so whats the plan now ?

Arora: preferably we should attempt to neutralize the Myanmar option via diplomatic means, the myanmarese have been on good terms with us and helped in cleaning up the cross border PLA camps in 2004, they have a huge if somewhat outdated army and if they deploy in strength into northern myanmar near our border purportedly to guard against adventurism by India, that land corridor cannot be opened. I also get the sense they are pissed with the chinese for flouting their airspace with impunity last few months and just waiting for our support to take a tougher stance.

Miglani: I will setup a visit to Yangon if I can on a urgent basis. let me phone their delhi ambassador right after this meeting - we studied political science together at delhi univ back in the old days.

Arora: yes please do so and explain our concerns. if necessary, offer a blanket guarantee of protection by India if the chinese lash out and a arms aid package whose details can be fleshed out based on what they want.

Sen: so I assume we are doing the Dhaka option?

Arora: do we have any other choice ? doing anything partially leaves the head of the snake intact and more aid and men will just pour in to replace those lost. regime change is really the only tool left. we cannot tolerate the incidents in the NE anymore, we are certain to lose elections in all eastern states if nothing is done. people are justifiably angry and blaming each other, old ethnic problems we have put the lid on with much effort could erupt at any moment.

Dighe: yes, its very bad. and just erecting a wall around the camp wont do, thats just a reaction not positive action.

Arora: So Gen Sastry please send the Dhaka plan file to the CCS members, not all have seen it yet.

Gen Sastry: Copies of executive summary will be hand delivered by my couriers tomorrow. Please remember its eyes only and must never be accessed by anyone in your offices. Must be kept under guarded lock and key. the full plan if printed would fill 12,000 pages of A4 text and so it will never be printed just kept on the computers. Only Sen sir has a real need to read most of its contents.

Sen: I have been sitting up until 4am lately to make inroads on it...which explains my red eyes and huge appetite. the 100,000ft view is that there are three phases. in phase1 we take out the terrorist infrastructure atleast whatever we know of because these people are
sure to disperse at the first sign of trouble, so we take them first. phase2 is a combined-arms air-land-naval blitzkreig on Dhaka involving sweeping aside and crushing anything that appears infront of us, we cannot afford to leave intact any foreign legion if we want to make our point. Recall, making a point to other hegemons wanting to enter our backyard is as important as restoring Madam to her seat in Dhaka. phase3 we install Madam to her rightful seat, sign a new defence treaty and hunt down any of the escapees from phase1. phase3 also involves a purge of the BD army's islamist elements and replacement by nationalist elements of which there are plenty. in the end the BD army is the best guarantor that the swamp remains clean.

I must warn you all however compressed timeline inevitably means higher civilian casualties. BD is thickly populated now compared to 1971 and the need to confront and defeat the foreign legions in depth means there will be fighting in built up areas. we cannot just bypass them and drive to dhaka. Our casualties will also be heavier than a simple bypass campaign.

phase0 will be a prelude to operations and involve media propaganda by us, talks by Madam to the world media, and working with nationalist elements in the BD army via Madam's intermediaries in BD to remove as much as possible, the BD regular army from the fighting.

Dighe: what is Madams diplomatic posture now considering she did little to curb these troublesome elements when she was in power ?

Arora: She had effectively lost control of some sections of the army and intel apparatus around two years before the coup. We are also to blame somewhat for not seeing it clearly and pressing her in time. And concessions to India are a hot political issue over there.
If we manage to put her back it will be a valid political moment to sign a treaty of mutual defence and also grant some facilities to us like rail and road corridors between NE and mainland India and a much more open cross border trade to curb smugglers. The rank and file of her party and all the leaders have been brutalized by Gen jaffar so I think they will be grateful to whoever gets them off the hook – atleast for a while.

Dighe: how reliable is her word ?

Arora: good enough, considering there are quite a few other budding Jaffars in Dhaka. Our support will be needed for a long time yet, the purge of the BD army has to be gradual and calibrated process not a Stalinist terror campaign which will just demoralize everyone. Subtle as we always are.

Sen: so assuming the Russians manage to veto any blatant anti-india move in the security council for a while, what other pressure points will the US try to use against us ?

Miglani: travel advisories for sure, but then even now we are classified a ‘medium risk country’ by their state department and MNC execs visiting us hire private security guards as a matter of routine. So certain risks are already factored in when potential investors visit India. If we can contain this episode to the eastern theater and safeguard our vital commercial and mining centers in that theatre, it should be ok. If a war erupts in the west or a general Himalayan fight with the Chinese the stock markets will react badly and some long term investment decisions could change. A two week episode is nothing from the pov of big investors, fly by night hot money operators could get burnt but we don’t want them anyway and have always tried to discourage that kind of FIIs. We expect the rupee to weaken initially and then recover if the matter goes well for India. But we must prevent a general two front war.

Sen: Gen Sastry do you consider the current resource allocation adequate to defend Indian territory in the west and north ?

Gen Sastry: it could always be better , but yes if I can retain my three strike corps and most of the
Rapids divs in the west and one of the independent arty divs and hold them in eastern rajasthan and Punjab in a informal field deployment for the 2 week duration I am fairly certain we can reverse the losses from any pak adventurism in the west. I might have to strip away some IAF assets from the east including critical ones like Mirages temporarily as needs emerge. In the north, our supply situation is rather good and our defences rather strong to enforce a stalemate and prevent major losses of territory. Again, some IAF assets may be needed from the east to interdict lines of supply in Tibet if a battle erupts.

Sen: yes ofcourse, losing any significant territory elsewhere would negate any gains in the east by giving them a bargaining chip.

Gen Sastry: there is this other matter sir.

Sen: I was coming to that…the mutilaton and display of dead bodies from the Raven force.

Dighe: A violation of all norms.

Sen: not just that, but a provocation and a morale booster for the lashkar type constituency.

Gen Sastry: I have talked to Brig.George and others. The SF community is very unhappy about this. Normally we go in with enough resources to permit bringing back all fatal casualties, but in this instance we were persuaded to go in light due to the deep penetration and chance of discovery of a larger force. Not taking any action will hit morale in the forthcoming ops. A man will take huge risks when alive but something in the human psyche doesn’t want the kind of things they have done after death.

Sen: Aroraji, I suggest just issuing the cut n paste diplomatic demarche to the BD people in delhi wont do this time, we will get a equally cookie cutter reply. The media is having a field day about this.

Arora: ok, so who primarily did this at the local level ? we will bring jaffar and his group to a show trial later if they survive.

Sen: our informants indicate the mil intel unit remnants based at Hedayatpur itself and a regular BD infantry battalion which we now know is rife with islamist officers. This unit is based at another camp 10km from hedayatpur. One Col Maruf Mortaza is said to be the incharge of what they have been parading infront of the media.

Arora: can we selectively take these two formations down AND capture video imagery for a press conference later ? just punishing them secretly wont work – the world , esp their world needs to know the consequences of such acts.

Gen Sastry: doable if you authorize another air dominance sweep over BD for the duration. I would not recommend another heliborne assault at less than a couple of battalions strength. Satellite imagery shows vastly improved manpower and fortifications at the base now. In hindsight we should have sent in more aircraft and cratered that site after the raven op.

Arora: I do not want another ground op until phase0 is complete. Can it be done from the air?

Gen Sastry: at the risk of missing some people. if we did a heliborne raid
we could even try to capture some alive.

Sen: No, we are not going back in before phase1.

Arora: Please work to reduce the gaps and you have my go-ahead. We need this done rather quickly to demonstrate cause and effect. I will have DAVP work with the DD/private TV channels to collect TV footage from BD and Pak-TV to catalogue the officers seen with the bodies and get RAW to work Madams political workers inside BD to identify these miscreants.

Gen Sastry: Um, In anticipation we have already prepared the strike plan.

Sen: excellent, kill them all. *bites viciously into a hot kachori*
I want an example made of this case.

Gen Sastry: very well sir. I can also report that JTF Raven is now disbanded and its resources distributed among the other JTFs. We are ready when you are.

Arora: we will let you know when we decide to start phase0, in a way Madam’s TV broadcast has already started it.

Sen: indeed. Do we have anything else today ?

Arora: No, meeting is over.

Sen: let me get back to my dreary nightly reading. If any of you are overcome with curiosity as to how much water supply a independent armoured brigade needs every day, do call me.

One by one the white ambassadors dispersed into the fog shrouded delhi night.

Gen Sastry called Air commodore Basra to authorize an operation for the following night - Agneya.

**********
JaiS
Forum Moderator
Posts: 2190
Joined: 01 Mar 2003 12:31
Location: JPEG-jingostan
Contact:

Post by JaiS »

GDji welcome back. RajeevT has a new job for you. :)
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

[revised]

Prasanjit Ghose awoke inside a mud hut. His first reaction was to reach for his firearm, but it wasn't there. His head spun, he couldn't raise himself off... where was he? The last thing he remembered was Paratrooper Prasanjit Ghose, running along the perimeter of the target amidst all the explosions and the emerging firefight and then his memory faded him. Never mind that now, where was he?

Faizul Rahman pressed the wet cloth against Prasanjit's head. "Rest now brother..." he spoke soothingly in Bangla. He had heard Prasanjit's delirium reveal his mother tongue, he knew how to reassure his guest, now lying on rags on the mud floor of the little mud hut with cowpats on the wall.

The explosion that left Prasanjit for dead had concussed him. The blow to the back of the head erased his short term memory. He would never know how he came upon the RPG round and how he had spun off from the blast as his Para Cdo. team mate Surjit Singh had lost his life shielding him. It wasn't intentional heroics, just the luck of the draw. Prasanjit would also not know how Faizul, the camp janitor, had fallen in the ditch with him and he had saved his life by shielding him from incoming fire by the luck of the draw and his bullet proof vest.

For Faizul, thankful to be alive, escaping with the stranger in the confusion was not too difficult. Faizul's son, also a cleaner, had been nearby and had helped them out as the helicopters clattered overhead. Somehow, he felt the need to do this. Now, in Jalghat village, built on shifting river mud, near to Hedayatpur, Faizul tended for his saviour, not knowing what to do next.

"Abba..." Faizul's son returned from his foray outdoors, "there is chaos in the camp, the Babu's don't seem to know what is going on..."

"No son..." Faizul sighed, "It is Allah's grace that we are alive today, nothing to do with the Fauji babu's..." Faizul's memory stretched to his boyhood and the Pakistani soldiers who had visited his village just after the monsoon of 71. He still remembered the bodies damming up the little canal out to the larger river, bloated, black like water buffaloes, and the stench. He gagged at the memory, as he had gagged as a child.

He was owed four months pay by the Fauji babu's of Hedayatpur, and a daughter. The pretty teenager, who had been taken away as a domestic servant, they had said. In his father's heart he feared much darker jobs for his little girl in the Officer's mess block in Hedayatpur. He had a teenage sister too back in 71. He often wondered what became of her. He was a poor man, a cleaner. Allah protected him, but somehow his lot in life was to clean the babu's toilets and his mess, and not ask questions. The new maulana in the village and told him not to ask so many questions. This new maulana, what did he know? Him with his fancy Saudi education? What did he know of the life of a cleaner in Jalghat? He got to eat three times a day, Faizul did not. Faizul's five children did not...

And this Hindu lying in front of him, in his black torn uniform. This Hindu who had saved his life... Allah must have sent him for a reason to Faizul Rahman the cleaner.

"Abba, I saw them burn the bodies" Faizul's son said, "even the Sirdar that was there when I found you"

"What of him?" Faizul asked, memories of the night forming into coherence

"They cut him Abba, many times, it was horrible, they cut him like the butcher cuts the goat, then they threw the pieces into the fire..."

Faizul Rahman sighed and pressed the thin wet cloth to Prasanjit's head. Here I am, with goat once a year at Eid, and these Fauji's and their Pakistani friends cut a man up like a goat? How can I make sense of this world Allah?

"Get me the gur son"

"But Abba, it is our last piece..."

"Doesn't matter son, we must help this man"

"Yes Abba"
Denis
BRFite
Posts: 144
Joined: 05 Sep 2002 11:31
Location: India

Post by Denis »

UP!

Author sahebs!

Tum chhuppe ho kahaan, hum tadapte yahaan!! (sung to the tune of old film song)
Sunil
BRFite
Posts: 634
Joined: 21 Sep 1999 11:31

Post by Sunil »

Sorry Denis,

I am out of action for the next month.
Denis
BRFite
Posts: 144
Joined: 05 Sep 2002 11:31
Location: India

Post by Denis »

:cry: :cry: :( :( :cry: :cry:
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

Prasanjit smelt the pungent river mud and cow dung scent as he floated in and out of sleep. Reminded him of home. But now mingled with the dried sweat of the poor, poorer than him he thought. He felt safe, but he knew he was not so. He wished he could feel strong enough to raise himself up next time he awoke... was he awake? what was going on outside?

his eyes focused on the boy sitting in the dark corner of the little hut, watching him. He tensed as he saw him fingering his Saathi terminal... ok, relax he told himself. Without the power pack or antennae kit, he could only work in LAN mode. Besides, by now his unit would have been deactived? How long had he been here? How was he going to get back? Who were these people... and why were they helping him?

"Salaam babu" the boy spoke

"How are you boy?" Prasanjit croaked from a dry throat, forcing a smile

"Wait, I will give you water"

Where's my gun, Prasanjit wondered

Two kilometers away, Faizul Rahman, the prematurely aged cleaner with the beedi cough, swept the yard outside the NCO's mess in Hedayatpur as around him the Engineers from the BDF and the Pak Army started to clear up the mess left behind by Prasanjit and his colleagues.

Bull dozers shoveled the burnt and smashed rubble away, teams of Bangladeshis were being pressed to toil, clearing, cleaning, removing, rebuilding.

Faizul Rahman, bent over in his labour, sweat on his brow, the smell of river mud, cow dung and his peasant labour about him, moved his brush to and fro as he tried to hear the snatches of conversation around him. Some in Bangla, some in Urdu which he didn't really understand, and some other foreign tongue that the Paks used. He had to think of what to do next.

"We should offer money to these fishies" snorted a tall Pathan to another large mustachioed man walking past

"What for?"

"Get them to sell their mothers... as well as their sisters!" he laughed crudely, soon joined by the other

Money... the hunger pangs in Faizul's stomach gurgled. Money... now that was an interesting thought. What could I do with money... what could I with five children who did not eat twice a day every day do with money... hai Allah... Faizul, bent over double and sweeping the floor in his fish-peasant servitude was consumed in doubt.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

training for panic

Post by rajpa »

He was not even aware that the devices were planted by his cousins when they came to visit him. And this was just a trial run. There were several such terror cousins all over the country, learning how to write software for large corporations, just like they learnt how to fly aircraft elsewhere.

The places listed in the PDF we saw earlier were each to be attacked in several different ways, different weapon systems, different delivery systems. The actual means of operation were fed to the cousins through training at the facility where Farid was in right now. The timely orders, and the communication to the cadres, the flow of the chain of command occurred through the means of the communication that he and others like him passed on to their cousins.

And they were all ready with their products, ready to go, ready to kill.

Now their operation was past the successful phase 1, it was to go underground, with the control passed on completely to Farid for all further decisions, but the objective was clear.

Farid could tell that they were waiting for the big event. What it was he didnt know.

He was to receive orders to deploy all the cousins in the various high value targets. By now, he thought, the chances of a successful hit, definitely must be much reduced. They must all be thoroughly swept clean, he thought.

By the time he was given the logistics of the entire operation in the multiple places, he was pretty sure that it will be difficult to stop this operation. The whole thing was pretty well planned. There was to be a trigger for these operations, and that was the big event which he was not made aware of yet.

The strategic considerations as listed earlier, tactically, this trigger came in at a time, when after having waged a limited war from the east by way of immigrants, limited incursions into Indian territory and provocations escalating into coups and finally war, the height of confusion was to be caused by these two big events. One was the hitting of the high value assets that we know, and the other was brewing elsewhere.

It did seem exciting to him considering his loyalty to his current bosses, but he was still aware of his responsibilities to an entirely different set of people altogether, and as he felt it - to all of humanity. He knew had to communicate. Urgently.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

the revival

Post by rajpa »

"Wake up, civilian!" roared Rakesh's voice.

Guru watched the mutating crowd through groggy eyes which finally rested on the figure of Sqn Ldr Rakesh Rao.

"You have some news for me."

"I dont know what is going to happen, but this is what I have. It seems very urgent to me." He handed over the printout to Rakesh.

After Rakesh browsed through it, he said "Hmm. Yeah, we knew some of this. Come with me."

And the they were at the Palam airport. And Guru was still high from the hash that had lingered over at the Jungle Room. He watched the planes take off and land, take off and land... It was quite nice, he thought, this life.

"Meet Ms. Kamini Sinha." He said. And Guru couldn't believe his eyes.

Later he came to know of Sadiq Hussain, nukes being transferred into the country via Indonesia and some more stories, none of which he could quite believe.

He was just interested in watching the planes for the time being.
JTull
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3118
Joined: 18 Jul 2001 11:31

Post by JTull »

It is quite unrealistic for Guru to know about the nukes when War Council had decided to keep a gag on it and when US still doesn't know about it.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

the knowledge of nukes

Post by rajpa »

As you know, RAW is aware of nukes of bin laden group (sunil - posted - Posted: 10 Oct 2004). These are the same nukes that may currently be travelling through Indonesia.

Rakesh works for RAW, with a mission to focus on insurgent/ALQ activities and has the confidence of Rao, the head of RAW (some background.. ) along with a small team to assist. They have detected the movement of some of these nukes, but are waiting for the intel to come in about their extended plans.

He figured that Guru, now being involved in deciphering ALQ codes, via Farid and Kamini, has to be fed atleast prelim info so that he can keep his ears pricked up for any critical info on ALQ "radioactivity".

Besides, Kamini will have important stuff to do with her new life as air staff shuttling between singapore, saudi arabia, _indonesia_ etc... apart from being the handler for Farid.

We may want to see some ratcheting up of pressure on TSP covertly and overtly on the nuke issue some time soon, Rakesh thought.

Farid, meanwhile, has just been introduced to Sadiq Hussain, who may be handling the operation for ALQ from BD, but is getting ready to delegate it to someone trustworthy. Farid, already being successful in one operation, he figured, was it.

All info in this underground world is strictly distributed on a need to know basis and they all needed to know.
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

out of action next 45 days. :roll:
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

Rajpa - I like what you are doing, keep going.

btw - Kamini is not going to be cabin crew. She is going to be a marketing rep for Golden Sarong located in the Jakarata suburbs sharing an apartment with Maisie Lam (Lai Lai). She has to be in and around Jakarata with a license to move around and meet people. After all, it is Port Bintang that she is interested in.

I was going to write more about Bandar Bintang, but given the dreadful events, particularly around Banda Aceh, I am standing off discussing Indonesia for a little while.
Y I Patel
BRFite
Posts: 781
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30

Post by Y I Patel »

I will be holding off for a while longer. Can't bring myself to write a story right now, even a grim one.
viveks
BRFite
Posts: 341
Joined: 17 Nov 2004 06:01

Post by viveks »

Can any of you guys point me into the story which covers the idea of what would happen if Musharaf was assasinated by terrorists. The way things are going on in pakistan....there is very little doubt that our country will have to take actions in order to ensure the stability and safety in the region.

I highly doubt our leaders would have anticipated this scenario.
HarshS
BRFite -Trainee
Posts: 42
Joined: 20 Dec 2004 15:12
Location: New Delhi, India

Hey, maestros, keep this thread alive

Post by HarshS »

For four fun months, I've been turning to this thread first, and now it's asleeeep. It's cold in Delhi and elsewhere in the world, but I'm sure that our Word warriors can still hit the keyboard. Waiting for an updation, from somebody, from anybody.

Harsh
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Post by Singha »

I shall be able to start again from middle of Feb and enjoy a good two week run before GHQ 'pindi arrives to clip my highflying wings. :roll:
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

awaken the phoenix yet again..

Post by rajpa »

my apologies...

Now, Guru and Kamini are wondering what their next steps should be. Rakesh has gone back to his duty of monitoring intrusive activity along the LOC and other such inane, mundane occupations.

Farid is caught in a quagmire of having to respond to his immediate assignments of co-ordinating between the terrorists and having to communicate to his friends and loved ones about one or more huge imminent catastrophes, for some of which he may be the direct causal force.

Farid is considering working out a mechanism of passing on a single message or two to Guru by using his wife as a channel.

While these difficult actions are slowly in phase, <interlude> I thank daulat for his message. I emphathise with tsunami victims as well. I try to continue to write this story...

I wonder if someone can contribute on paki mindset.

I wish to get into TSP to get details of the initial meeting between two perfect enemies of our nation, if it can be obtained from any quarter at all.

I have some ideas there, but they tend to be outrageous.

On the other hand, the sketchy details of the operation are emerging from a semi-trusted friend of india, who may not be in an ideal position to reveal the true designs of the enemy.

It makes me wonder... if the enemy is cunning and has made strong strategic preparations for a war that we are only vaguely aware of, what must we believe in, for us to defeat his nefarious designs. Must we be burdened or enlightened by the very delicate nature of human strengths and weaknesses. the phoenix must rise from the ashes again.

to be continued.. hopefully...
ramana
Forum Moderator
Posts: 59773
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30

Post by ramana »

daulat and rajpa here is a map to help.

Image
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

Post by rajpa »

Sadiq Hussain.

"It is a huge tragedy that India is to be broken into a hundred pieces. And we are the ones to get this magnificient process of nature rolling. Rolling right into their mutilated bodies and souls. Their cowherd leader, Kirshna Yadav once said that the soul was unbreakable and that it will continue to rise, again and again. Not so. It shall never be that the so-called Indian nation shall cause us shame. We are going to be the eternal victors over these cowards."

"Farid, you have been given basic training to handle logistics, operations and planning of this operation. Insha Allah, you will carry out this duty of yours to the Ulema and break the backs of the oiseaules."

"Banda Aceh was devastated by a tsunami years ago and it opened up a land atoll close to the shore as the land rose up to meet the Burma Plate. It was noticed by one of our ALQ friends and is currently unknown to the Indonesian authorities. The nuke Al-Fiqa is in that area, given by the co-ordinates in the map supplied by Rahman Haq. Another tsunami will rise from the place that will not only devastate the land of the cowards but mark the beginning of the rise of Islam over the rest of the world."

He looked around in satisfaction. There were six commanders round that small dhaba room, all with their laptops and GPS equipment. The whole plan was loaded on computer and was to be executed like a proper project.

Farid was lit with pride as he saw his mates working out complicated logistics problems, critical paths and solution constraints. He had himself come from a stolid madrasa that taught nothing of "modernities". Yet, he was pondering how he could save himself from the burden of having to kill. Kill. To kill his loved ones, to charge into history with the mantle of authority to destroy a fifth of mankind. Is it madness, he thought. Is it my holy duty, he wavered in his imagination. He thrust and parried with himself, thoughts and counter thoughts.

He thought of his wife, his beloved wife. He thought of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, of Gandhi. Nobody came to his rescue. All his thoughts were wiped out by the contingent plans lying ahead of him.

He sat down and performed his namaz. He thought of his wife. He will give her a call.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

Post by rajpa »

Guru and Kamini. Palam Airport. Staff cafeteria, Golden Sarong.

"I was just sitting at my desk and wondering about something or the other. And then this blast occurred."

"I really can't recall much of the happenings. I only remember watching the news and seeing myself come out of the hospital. I dont know if Farid saw it. Or, if any of his friends or cousins, whoever they were."

Kamini said, "Yes, it is the sort of thing that happens in a traumatic situation like that. I do not believe that killing another person is a mentally easy thing just as much as being the victim."

"You get toasted either way." He mumbled.

"Here, have something to eat." She said, with a rare show of maternal affection.

As he munched his breakfast, he pondered over the times he had spent away from home, his parents, his siblings - two brothers and a sister. He thought of Afsana staying at his place and thought about Farid.

"Farid has not gotten in touch with you, has he." She said echoing his thoughts.

"No. I must check back home to see if he has left any messages with his wife. Where could he be right now? You know we used to chat at work most of the time. I wish I could send him an instant message right now."

"By the way, do we have a computer here?" He asked her.

Then they went to the reception desk.

It was five in the morning. They had been chatting all night talking about various things, rambling along and talking about the parties, just a lot of stupid small talk. They had laughed and pulled each others' legs over their stories. He told her about his feeling drugged after spending a whole night at the Jungle. She told him about learning Kelepasan and Tagalog and some dirty words in each language. They seemed to have forgotten their involvement in the seeming catastrophic shape of events unfolding in their lives.

He unplugged the RS-232 cable from the computer, set up the USB modem, logged on to the internet, connecting via his mobile phone. He searched for any messages from Farid on the forums that they visited. None.

On a hunch he did a ping to Farid's static IP, and he waited.

10 secs. 20 secs. 30 secs.

He was going to do the Ctl-C when he saw the IP packets return.

"You got him!" She said, in excitement.

It was not that easy.
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

Three kms outside Kalaikunda airbase in a small prefab hut hidden amidst a thicket of Flame of the Forest trees, Flight Sargeant Arun Biswas idly gazed at the data console from the Heron UAV that was out there somewhere... where it should not be. With the shut down of the Chinese radar, only the Dhaka airport civillian system would be able to spot it, and then it might mistake it for a crane - if anyone was watching. Good to be posted to Kalaikunda after his last tour to Bhuj. Closer to home, Biswas was happier. He felt sleepy, only another three hours till his shift finished...

A little icon blipped and caught Biswas's eye. No, that's not possible he thought. He pressed a few keys and waited.

There it was again. Biswas sat up now and paid attention.

Warrant Officer Javed Khan looked up from his desk, "What is it Flight Sargeant?"

Biswas handed him the printout...

Khan picked up the phone to the Duty officer in Kalaikunda...

"Sir... one of the missing Saathi terminals... its transmitting..."

"What? How?!" Sqdn Ldr. Krishnan couldn't believe it

"It's bouncing off the GSM network and one of the birds has picked it up"

"It could just be... accidental?"

"No sir, there is a pattern - signal too weak to decode the message, but who ever is sending it, is trying to talk"

"Ok Warrant Officer - see what you can find out"

Krishnan punched another number and waited till the secure line connected, "Ravi... one of your boys is back from the dead"

Major Ravi Malhotra sensed it to be a hoax, surely one of the Paks or even Chinis had found it... they were playing a game...

----------------

In a cow dung splattered mud hut on shifting river banks, Prasanjit Ghose hid behind straw and thin cotton towels and tried to peer outside. His hosts had been kind, but he sensed that one way or another time was running out. And so were his batteries...
daulat
BRFite
Posts: 338
Joined: 09 Oct 2002 11:31

Post by daulat »

Malhotra frowned intently at the desk trying to concentrate. He had hopped on the liaison flight to Kalaikunda and conferred with Krishnan and W/O Khan.

"There is no doubt?"

"No sir" Khan replied

Malhotra knew Prasanjit Ghose. He was not directly his commanding officer, but he knew him from the unit. He had been chosen due to his endurance in running and his ability to cussedly hang in there against all the odds when the sturdier, taller paratroopers from the 'wheat belt' had all flaked under the brutal training regimen. If anyone was going to be left alive, it was the wiry and resilient Ghosh who was going to be the one.

"How the hell do we get him out?" Krishnan asked the wall

They both knew the options... and the costs.

"Sir... if I may?" Khan interrupted the gloomy silence

"yes Javed?" Krishnan relaxed a little

"You cannot leave him there sir" Javed's mind went back to the shadowy images that one of his Heron's had captured of the fires burning in the camp and the group of jeering men standing around, and the inert shapes that were being tossed in to the flames.

Malhotra clenched his teeth... Ghose, perhaps just alive, somewhere within five kilometers from Hedyatpur... back into the jaws of hell, where he had been just a few days ago... how on earth was this going to work?

--------------------------

Faizul Rahman sat on his haunches on the concrete pan outside the Military Police hut on the back side of Hedyatpur barracks. This side faced the stinking nullah that bled out to the river that bled out to the Padma and then out to the Sea. His mind wandered, only to be brought back to reality with the buzzing of flies in the afternoon sun. This was the dark side of camp, the side that the babus didn't want anyone to see.

His eyes had dried of tears some time back, he was a lowly sweeper, but he had tears just the same. At his feet lay a young girl, bruised and with blood on her loose thin cotton sari. The Bangaldeshi Military Policeman told him that she had met with an accident last night, he wouldn't say what, or where, but his eyes strayed to the barracks where Rahman knew the foreigners stayed. Rahman knew. His eyes had dried and the blood had come back to his limbs. Slowly he bent down and scooped his daughter into his arms, and began the crushing walk of despair back towards Jalghat as the MP looked at his feet and cursed his superior officer.

The wailing of women and the yelping of pie-dogs ushered in the dusk over Jalghat
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

Post by rajpa »

Farid's laptop was not reachable through any other protocol. Not even the chat system that he was to use for communicating with Kamini.

What Guru knew from the static IP was that its router was based somewhere near Ankara in Turkey.

"We must monitor calls made from India to Turkey and get a fix on his location." Guru said to Rakesh.

Hours later, Rakesh got back. Two likely propsects were found for the calls made to Turkey. One was from a satellite phone currently moving south south east from Nawabganj in Bangladesh. The other was from a satellite phone in Chennai.

As Kamini could not yet make a confirmed guess that Farid had gone over to the other side, she offered to check out the location before taking off to Jakarta. It was time for Kamini to take up duty at the Golden Sarong.

Later at The Theosophical Society, Besant Nagar, Chennai.

The wizened old man in a grey beard looked up at her. She appeared so beautiful that he thought it must be a goddess. Yet, from what religion he wondered. Durga? Aphrodite?

She left him to his ponderings.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

Post by rajpa »

Meanwhile Guru left for home.

Afsana had received a short call from Farid. He had told her about a temporary business assignment from a long time friend and relative. He asked her to pray that his work be successful and that they may meet soon. He sounded loving and nostalgic, she felt.

Farid was on his way by road to a little known chinese base in Myanmar. He will have a little talk with some elements of the PLA. From there, he will go by air to Phuket and sail to Banda Aceh.

He will operate his satphone for as little as possible to stay update with the latest project details.

He knew that Guru was aware of his domain address and perhaps his static IP. They had used that channel once to send ***** to each other across their company firewall. He knew that it was an easy guess for Guru to figure out his route and probably somewhat more difficult to locate his connection to the server in Turkey.

They will certainly get that far, he thought, possibly right upto my satphone connection. Even so, come to me, my brethren. It will be salvation if we all do our God's bidding. He prayed that day with a heavy heart, yet filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement. He was on his way to become a true jehadi.
rajpa
BRFite
Posts: 437
Joined: 04 Aug 2004 09:35
Location: Chennai

Post by rajpa »

18 hrs later.

"Sir, we have tracked this ISI operative all the way to Myohaung in Myanmar and travelling towards Phuket. I have some reason to believe that he may be involved with the nukes and also that the PLA is offering assistance.

Sir, as you know, we have reports of the Chinese having established a base in the vicinity. I require your permission to involve our local boys there." Rakesh reported to Rao.

"Patience, my boy." He said to Rakesh. "This requires some additional attention. We will certainly alert our boys there. I want you to keep on this agent's tail and will require reports from you every three hours."

"Meanwhile, I have a little bit of talking to do, myself." He marched Rakesh off and starting writing an analysis document for the War Council.

His suspicions were coming true, he thought. A true Chankian, he smelled out the rat immediately.

1 hour before the War Council.

Rao, heard talking to Arora on the lawns of the PM's residence.

"Sir, I am afraid that we may not have much time. The dark clouds are gathering."

The tsp, chicoms, unkil and various assorted others heard that as well. They smiled to themselves.

"It is time to go in."
Locked