Bharat Rakshak

Shanker where are you, daily I check BRF at least 17 times only to check whether you have posted anything or not.
I am curiously waiting for your post.

great stuff, this! should really edit it and get it published!

can anyone suggest which of the earlier possible scenarios threads is particularly interesting?

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The spy network at Mumbai operated a little bit differently than the non metro areas. Run by a senior officer on deputaion from CBI, it resembled a more law enforcement agency than a secret service. Director Shevgaonkar seemed to still think that he is with CBI, and in many cases, so did his deputies. Rather than practicing the passive observer role, they took things into their own hands many often. Even the Mumbai police was scared of them, because they seemed to have sensitive information about most of the police officers that they wielded efficiently. Even the underworld of the city was scared of them, and it could be safely assumed that Shevgaonkar was not averse to pulling strings with them to reach his ends.

Shevgaonkar was very excited today. He seemed to have got a tip off about a plan by a terror organization. He was showing off to his deputy in charge of Panvel area. "They are bringing in something from the south." he said. "We got to stop them before they come into the city, you see". The man who was standing respectfully in front of him nodded. "Do we have anymore details sir?". "Not much. But I know that this is LeT in play. You know that my hunches never fail in these! My sources are very confident that this time they are planning something big."

"Ah, Nair", continued Shevgaonkar. "Alert our men in the area. We are not going to let those $#%^@ to come near to our city." Suresh Nair knew that the only response expeced is "Yes, sir", though he had no useful information from his boss yet. All he could do is continue his job as is, till he get more information from the boss himself.

Suresh Nair hated working here. He always felt that there is too much Shevgaonkar for him, everywhere he turn. Nothing was allowed to happen without the active involvement of the "Director" as everyone called Shevgaonkar. Even the underworld dons and bollywood figures called him that. For people like Suresh Nair, all they got to do is what the Director directs him, and applaud when he takes all the credit himself. Too bad he can't go public on Tv or other media. But Shevgaonkar knows how to play his cards and get the limelight to himself.

However, at least this megalomaniac should be thanked for one thing. Considering the magnitude of the attempts, Mumbai is comparitively problem free compared to the rest of the country.

To be Continued

ST EVE BAUER -US AGRICULTURAL OFFICER -SAJDEK PASS -1900 HRS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve bauer came from the plains of iowa where they grow soyabeans by thousands of metric tons to feed the farm animals mostly but in afganistan he was helping the govt to grow soyabeans that afgan children and women have enough dietry protien to survive . After a lonf 3 month stint in the valleys around herat he was atlast returning to herat and to kabul on his way home .Ashe looked at the worsening trafic jam in the pass because of small onvoy of stranded toyotas he knew he may not be able to catch the late night ariana flight to kabul which meant he wil definitely miss the next mornings indian connection ro delhi and whch again meant his flight to chicago on delta . He kicked the hard frozen ground cople of times to get rid of some the frustration building up and then decided to inform home of a possible 24 hour delay on his govt provided satellite phone ,as he decided on a leisurely stroll towards the bottle neck enjoying the colourful invectives the loacl drivers threw at the occupants of the four toyotas .

In herat district and more particularly in and around the town of bagdis steve worked with a non govt organisation whiEN DO NEVERch worked selflessly to provide food and health solutions to the people of afganistan .Several years back when steve visited afganistan more due to curiosity than any serious intention to help he found he could be of help more importantly he could make a differnce to he local population as he introduced various milk and soya based products to traditional afgan diet.It was a matter of great surprise to see the afgans taking a liking to soya products aprticularly when biled soya cakes were spiced and berbecued like lamb kebabs.

Afganistan suffers from malnutrition big time .One out of six woman die in child birth and one out of five children do not reach the ripe olld gae of five. Most of thes deaths are avoidable and mainly caused by a lack of protien in thier diet and steve hoped his soyabeans will some day prvent this cruel deprivation to afgan women and children .Steve had great plans for soya cultivation in afganistan like use of mechanical thrashers, use of centralised processing plants and finally centralised distribtion of soya concentrates all oer the country .

GUL MOHAMDS CONVOY -STUCK ON APPROACH TO SAJDEK PASS-1900 HRS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two american girls were restless and thier lady escort could understand the reason behind their restlessness ,with almost 5 hrs couped up inside a cramped convoy the ladie needed a break . Mrs gul mohamed signalled the armed guards to go other way as she personally escorted the girls to a nearby bush for attending to the call of nature

Steve reached the stranded toyota convoy after about 15 minutes and did not get unduly alarmed at the sight of the small group of armed afgans trying thier best to restart the engine . This part of afganistan was known to be friendly towards westerners and as steve offered to help his offer was gratefully accepted by the driver but they quickly changed thier attitude as gul mohamed sharply spoke in tajik to them . Steve shrugged -he could never really understand the afgans and turned back towards his car and then spotted some thing he did not expected atleast not in a remote mountain pass in afganistan . He was an intelligent person and knew any sighn of overt recognition at this point will endanger all thier lives very surely . So he continued his turn towards his car and leisurely strolled down the road and only when out of direct line of sight of the toyotas -he took out his satellite phone and dialled us embassy in kabul.

USS ABRAHAM LINCHON - SOME WHERE NEAR THE PAKISTANI COAST
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Capt julia strted her six hourly check of global hawks health
- mission control element - o.k
- synthetic aperture radar - o.k
- embeded ground communication equipement - o.k
- fuel status - 60% remaining
-engien rpm - 70% steady all temp mormal
- electro optical sensors - switched off - o.k
- infra sensors -on -o.k
- ground moving target indiactor -standby -o.k
- gps system -normal
- data down link status -active -o.k
- selected data down load form -Ku band
- launch and recovery system - ok
- navigational correction and gps link -o.k
- inertial -gps coordiantion module - o.k

Julia relaxed for a minute as she saw in the outer fringes of her raw moving infra red image dispaly the trafic jam on one of the mountain passes near heart and she having no better lead at the moment changed the course of the global hawk towrds the trafic jam

pretty absorbing dileep!!!!!
carry on!!

Steve Bauer LoL gr8 one shankar cant wait for the real action to begin

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The lakshadweep islands are situated around 220 nautical miles west of mainland. They are a series of coral islands, offering pristine beaches and beautiful lagoons. Eleven of the islands are inhabited. The original economy is based on fishing and coconut plantation. But in late 20th century, tourism became a major contributor. The airstrip at Agatti island offers air connection to Kochi. But majority of the passengers use ship service. A number of wooden boats also ply between the isles and the mainland, generally carrying freight.

For a twin diesel boat like the Haji Moosa, it will take almost 30 hours to reach Agatti. Giving some extra time for it to loiter, she should be back within three days if they have a legit voyage. Aliyar, the replacement master lasker is carrying a cell phone hidden deep in his bag, but he will not be able to use it on board. In all, it was a tense wait for the needle hunters for three days. After the three days period, two more days, and the MEhnaz was expected to reach Dubai.

Being unable to sit tight, Anil Nambiar decided to take a flight to Kozhikode. He arrived the second day morning at Karippur, and took a taxi over to the city. He didn't even bother to check into the Taj before rushing over to Muhammad Faizal's office. Faizal had a full briefing ready. All the harbours in the area are under watch just in case. The cost guard is alerted, and ready to start the patrol. Two speed boats are kept ready at Beypore and Kozhikode. Anil was glad with that, but he also asked his guys at Ponnani and Azhikkal also to have a watch out.

However, all the wait has proven futile. Even at evening of the third day, there was no indication of the Haji Moosa, or Aliyar. Anil was frustrated. If nothing turns up, he will have to go back to Dubai and pick up the trail there. He didn't like that. Whatever or whoever on board Mehnaz would not, in most probability, be going to Dubai.

A chilling thought also occured to him. Maybe they already landed at the east cost. Although the network in the east also is on the lookout, it is a vast ocean and there are limits on what you can do. Anil simply hoped someone would find something out.

The night passed uneventful, but Anil could not sleep at all. Finally, he ended up making several calls, and met a visibly irritated Muhhamad Faizal at his office at 6:00am. As of now, the ports of Mangalore, Karwar and Goa are also on watch.

Finally, past 10:00 am, the phone rang. They noted with jumping hearts Aliyar's cell number on the caller ID.

"Where are you Aliyar?" Anil didn't mask the excitement in his voice. The background drone of the boat engine indicated that they are still on board. "Sir, we are in Goa. We dropped the stuff off at the Jetty on the north bank of the river, close to the bridge." Aliyar seemed to be talking in a very hushed tone. "What exactly is the stuff Aliyar?" Asked Faizal. "Will call later" was the rushed answer, and the call went dead.

"Are you sure it is indeed your guy, Faizal?" Asked Anil. "Sure sounded like him." Said Faizal. Without loosing a moment, Anil dialed a number on his cell. "Daric? Where are you? Candolim? Good! Rush to the north end of the Mandovi bridge. Our friend have just now dropped off something at the jetty there."

"That is Daric Fernandez. Lucky he got a speed boat handy" Anil said as he punched up the standard issue sat map of Goa on screen. It provided a 1 metre resolution image from the latest available satellite pass. The general issue images are updated every few weeks, but that is good enough for most of the functions. The jetty on the north shore of river Mandovi that is close to the bridge on NH 17 was clearly visible on the map. It is heavily used by tourist boats. Anil wondered why they used that location to land. Probably, because that is closest to the highway.

Within the hour, Daic Fernandez called back. Indeed the Haji Moosa had been seen there. Some enquiry with the locals revealed that a truck was parked there, and it appeared some suff was transferred to the truck. Luckily, someone had noticed that the truck took the southbound onramp of the NH. Specifically, no personnel were transferred from the boat to the truck. The boat left the place immediately thereafter.

Anil was glad to learn that Goa police is on the lookout for the truck. He did the best he could do at that point. That is to call Go Air and buy a ticket for the 12:00pm flight to Mangalore and Goa.

It was almost 3:00pm when the flight landed at Dabolim. Before it reached the apron, he switched on his cell and called Daric. There was good news and bad news. A truck that matches the description had been located at Cuncolim, but the driver and cleaner adamantly refuses even anywhere near the Jetty that day. The Goa police have them in custody. The truck is now being guarded on the NH where it was intercepted. He asked Daric to come to the truck. After several minutes that seemedlike ages, he could get out and get a taxi to go to Cuncolim.

Anil and Daric Fernandez met up near the truck. The police had already gone over it, and found nothing. But Anil decided to take a look himself. He started meticulously inspecting the entire truck. IT was an old Tata 1210 with a dirty cabin and a dirtier platform. The wooden sideplanks were old and heavily chipped. The floor of the platform are all battered such that they wouldn't know if a nuclear bomb was carried on it.

When he moved into the cabin, he lifted up the bench seat and pushed the backrest forward. He noticed a crumpled piece of paper. He took it and stretched it flat. It was a platform ticket from Madgaon station, stamped 11:03am that day. Daric was behind him looking at the ticket.

"That would be Konkan Express, going to Mumbai" Said Daric Fernandez.

<=========>

"Konkan Express?" Asked a surprised Suresh Nair. He wondered how "the Director" gets all these tips. But he knew better not to ask. "OK Sir, do you want us to stop and search the train? It will be somewhere near Kankavali now. We can get it at Ratnagiri". "No, don't stop it. Send a team to board it at Ratnagiri and keep an eye around" Was the order by the almighty director. Suresh Nair proceeded to execute the order. That is what he did best.

It took Anil Nambiar some time to reach the Mumbai office. He had to call several times, each time being put on hold and sent to the wrong extension. Finally he reached a lady who claimed to be the Secretary to the Director. The Director appeared to be busy at the moment. Anil gave his credentials and cell number, asking the Director to call back ASAP. He could detect the trace of sarcasm in the lady's voice when she acknowledged it.

Anil and Daric took a taxi and sped on the highway northbound as fast as they can. Anil was expecting a call from the Mumbai office, but it never came. He called again, and got the same lady with the same message. Irritated but desperate, he had to give a brief to the lady. All he said was that he is following the Konkan Express with something on board. The lady said "Oh, he knows that and someone is already on the job"

Anil never had such a confusing moment in his whole life.

To be Continued

TASK FORCE - RHINO -HERAT AIRPORT -2000 HRS
------------------------------------------------------------
Major srinath put down the sat phone and looked at the small group of paras assembled around him inside the abandoned hanger . For the last few hours they have been waiting ,waiing for a target and atlast a possible lead has come in from an usaf global hawk uav . There have been a possible visual indent by an independent observer on ground and it appeared the hostages were being transported in a small 4 vessel convoy across sajdek pass . Atrafic jam has worked in thier favourand atleast now he knew where to set up the ambush within few hours at most since once out of the narrow mountain pass the job of effective interception will multiply several fold .

As he started his briefing could not but smile at the massive and diverse firepower carried by his group .Any afgan taliban or rug peddler or whatever will definitly find it highly unpleasent to be on the recieving end .His personal weapon of choice was heckler and koch mp5a3 which also happened to be the favoured weapon of sas and used publicly during iranian embassy hostage crisis. Firing from closed bolt position the h and k mp5 achieevs far greater shooting acuracy because ther is no forward moving mass to disturb the aim- a great assiatance when working in close quarters as may be expected during a hostage rescue operation.

Apart from hkmp5s other sub machien guns carried by his group included israeli uzis and sweedish carl gustav used extensively by us special forces in vietnam and have since seen considerable upgrades .

Most of the assualt rifles carried by the task force were strangely russian ak 74s and india made insas 5.56 .The russian made dragunav sniper rifle fitted with starlite scope for accurate night shooting from distance completed the arsnel .Ofcourse all of of them carried side arms in the form of hi power browning and in some cases 0.44 magnum handguns.Under the barrel grenade launchers were not expected to be used during this operation due to close proximity of the hostages and other civilian in a reasonable busy mountain road .For the same reason use of mortars to block the convoys progress was also out of question .

It is interesting o note that during first half of 20th century encompassing two world wars and mind boggling leap in weapons technology development one thing which did not change much in its basic character is the infantrymans rifle.Till the end of world war 2 the calibre of rifle settled down to 7.92 mm or 0.315 inch . Self loading rifles began to supplant the bolt action rifles after second world war where the propellent gases bled off were used to charge up the reloading cycle .US army standardised on M1 with 0.3 inch or 7.62 mm. It was a highly sucessful version and more than 5 million pieces were made between 39 and 1959.The major draw back was the its 8 round magazine as compared to later version self loading rifles. By 1960 s a new pattern began to appear .With first division armies being suplplied with self loaders incorporating 20 rounds .The rounds fired were less powerful than earlier bolt action fired onea were stil effective to a range of 800 yds. Both nato and warshaw pact armies managed to standardise the basic infantry fighting weapon .NATO forces largely relied on belgian FN FAL and west german hecklar and koch G3 and ofcourse the us M14 .

However the most significant rifle developemnt came from soviet union in the form of kalashnikov designed by mikhail kalashnikov in 1974 has become the most sucessful and wide spread weapon in history and was also standardised to 7.62 mm warshaw pact calibre.Warshaw pact ammunitions tended to be shorter in length firing a heavier and slower bullet compared to western weapons which ressulted in ak-47 s bolt and movement more comact which translated to an easy to handle weapon. While the earlier bolt action rifles are practically indestructible the precision guided self loading rifles with thier greater number of moving aprts and usal high rate of fire wear out much faster .After over 25 yrs of service the first generation of SLRs werenearing obsolence and a broader change was also taking shape in deciding how the infantry i future will go into war. Marching on foot to a battle front was no longer the favoured option by the nato and to a lesser extent the soviet generals .The new soldier will ride into battle eiether in a helicopter or inside armoured personnel carriers like bradleys or bmp s .Studies showed actual action rarely took place at a reange of more than 300 mtrs wher high powered long range heavy weapons were an unnessecery luxery. This ave birth to a much lighter new generation of infantry weapons .US army wanted a lighter weapon weighing not more than 2.7 kgs but still have the penetrating power of much heavier M1 .Armalites AR 15 used completely new 5.56 mm cartige firing a bullet at more than 1000mtrs/sec but with an impulse low enough to make sustained automatic fire possible which was not possible in M1 . The smaller cartidge also allowed the shallow box magazine to hold 45 rounds .After extensive trials in 1959/60 volume production began in 1961 and to meet the growing requirement of vietnam war license production began at severl loactions i us and also in south korea,phillipines and singapore .

M-16 was not without problem .Initially the troops in vietnam were told they were self cleaning but after several instances of cartiges failing to eject and bolts unlockable an enquiry found an nauthorised changes in propelent composition was causing the excessive carbonisation during sustained fire as common in vietnam.Corrective actions included chromium plating of the chambers and modifying the buffers to cut down on the rate of sustained fire.The final version M16A2 with new rearsight ,heavier barrel and upgraded flash suppresor was introduced.A shortened version was also made with telescopic butt and cut down barrel named colt comando was made for us special forces .

Today major srinath had only half a dozen colt commandoes in his inventory and decieded to use all of them in the comming mission in combination with equal number of ak-74s and ofcourse the hand k mp5s.In short his 30 member final team will carry three diffrent kind of assualt weapon systems and carry out three distinct tasks in thre groups .

- diversion
- penetration
-rescue

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Anil Nambiar could not believe what is happening. How can the Director of Mumbai operations be on the job already. That could only mean someone has already tipped off them. Who could that be? Was that ISI itself? There was no indication that anyone else was working on the thread. His boss, the head of middle east ops was a man of very high integrity. He was the only guy who was briefed in detail. Of course the big guy at Washington knew from Sanjeev Gupta. Natarajan at Singapore reported directly to the ministry. a leak from that side was also not likely.

Anil didn't really know Shevgaonkar. He had heard about him alright, but he was totally unaware of how he ran his ops. Based on previous experience, he decided not to call his office. He dialled his boss at Delhi instead.

"Anil, I think you can drop it now. It is Shevgaonkar's territory anyway. He will take care of it. You should be dead tired now. Check into some hotel and get some rest. Meet me at the guest house in the morning" was the advice he got. That was surprising. So the old man would be in town tomorrow

All the excitement of the past few days has drained from him instantly, and the tiredness crept in and overcame. He directed the driver to take him to his regular staying place, laid back and drifted into sleep.

The needle in the haystack came tantalizingly close to him, but it was someone elses call to finally retrieve it. He still didn't know what exactly he was following, and what was at stake. But he knew that he will learn soon enough.

But that is another story.

Needle in a HayStack Concludes

Good work Dileep. Have you considered changing your day job???

Now that we know where the Needle is headed, I hope we don't have to wait for long for the stack to catch up.

-SB

Have you guys ever considered writing for a living? Maybe bring out a BR compendium of military stories?

Perhaps Lancer could publish it.

Spy Story: Epilogue

Despite the tension and excitement, Anil slept well. Probably the drinks he had the previous night with Daric helped. Still he managed to get himself ready and reach the guest house before 8:00 am.

"Mr. O. P. Malhotra IPS please" he told the receptionist. "Sure sir. Er.. He came back only at 6 o' clock sir. Not sure if he is up". With some reluctance, he called the room. He was surprised to see the man up and expecting the visitor. "Room 207, sir. Lift to the right."

Mr. Malhotra was originally a bengal cadre IPS officer who got deputed to the IB early in the career. He joined the current organization as director of West Bengal and Northeast territory and later moved to the middle east ops. It was then his path crossed with Anil Nambiar during his Delhi days. When an opening came, he recruited Anil and sent him off to Dubai. They had a very special relationship from there.

anil knocked and entered the room. Mr. Malhotra didn't show the sleepless night he spent. After the brief pleasantries, both of them sat down across the small desk in the ante room.

"Well.." began Anil.

"I would say you did a fantastic job Anil. " Malhotra began a little bit awkwardly. "Sir, tell me what happened after." Anil practically cut him off. Malhotra made an all knowing smile only a mentor can make.

"Well, the mumbai police and Shevgaonkar's team got them from a house in Panvel early this morning".

"Got whom? and what?"

"Whom? that would be four men. What? We don't know yet."

"But the stuff that came on the boat? Was that involved in this?"

"It sure was, otherwise I would have asked you to restart the trail" the smile widened.

"Did they get it? What was it?"

"Of course they got it. We don't know what exactly it is."

"Sir.."

"Well, all I can tell you is that the BARC guys took it to their lab"

Anil missed two heartbeats in a row...

"Sir, do you mean what I think you mean?"

"Your guess is as good as mine" the smile reappeared.

"Any track on the people"

"Shevgaonkar is positive they are ISI and LeT"

"I don't think they are, Sir"

"Why do you say that?"

"During our trace, we didn't find their involvement at all. If the stuff is indeed what we traced, it is NOT ISI who brought it in".

"We will have to look at it in detail. Oh, before I forget, you are flying with me to Delhi for debrief. We will know then."

And they proceeded to prepare for the ordeal of burocracy ahead. They had the faintest idea how things are going to turn in the coming few days.

Spy Story concludes

RHINO FORCE -MISSION BRIEF -HANGER 3B-HERAT AIRPORT-0000hrs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the silenec was absolute as major srinath initiated his mission brief in very precise manner

-mission objective - resue of two american female hostages aged betwen 23-26
-mission target - afour vehicle toyota convoy presently on sajdek pass caught up in a trafic jam

- Interception point between bridge 65 a and 65 b just at the exit from sajdel pass

- Drop zone qula-i-naw airstrip 93 kms north east fo herat

- rhino force to be divided into 3 teams A B C each with following objectives

-team a shall drop first from 20000 ft in typical high altitude low opening drop and secure the air strip perimeter

- team b shall drop neat with 3 bmp 3 and 4 gypsies after one hr

- team b shall leave for intercept zone immediately and responsible for atking out the armed guards in vehicle no 1 ,2 and 4 . they will take up position on both sides of the herat mymana road inthe dried out river valley and shrubs on the higher mountain side

- team a shall stay on in qual -i-naw airsrtip till team c who will be responsible for the actual rescue makes their drop and then make thier way to way point 1d to crate a diversion by setting fire /explossion to couple of discarded soviet t-72s abandoned near the mynamar road approximately 1000 mtrs from the projected interception point .

-each each team shall have one bmp 3 and one gypsy for their transportation wth the exception fo team c who will have one additional gypsy for the hsotage and casualities if any

- since the 2000 ft qual -i-naw airstrip is only a dirt strip may not allow safe landing for the il-76.so the vehicles will be dropped from minimum ht which is 150 ft and at a max speed of 270 knots as it flies over the airstrip by low altitude parachute extraction in collapsible crates .

- The first flight of il-76 shall carry team a -return immediately and laod on the vehicles and bmp 3 -shall carry the drop on confirmation from team a that air strip is secure
- team c will be last to drop .Imediately both team a and c will leave for their respective positions . Team a after completing the diversionary execise shall join team b as back up and will also act as rear guard if required during hostage extraction .

- It is expected air force assets shall take care of the two bridges 65a and b so that the civilian trafic is cut off from the conflict zone and no collateral damage is there fro cross fire

Any questions and there were many -as the paras unlike thier standard army counterparts believed in knowing everthing about the mission before getting into act .

As an after thought major srinath added - by the way in this mission the prisnors can endanger the safety of the rescued hostages -so please take care .

The message was loud and clear to evryone in the hanger -indian army has adopted a zero tolerance attitude to terrorists targetting women and children .

Major srinath continued without interuption

at present global hawks infre red iamgery indicaing tes a massive trafic jam on sajdek pass possibly caused by the breakddown of one of the kidnapping vehicles . The trafic is moving now but just about . The terrorist convoy with hostages is not expected to exit the mountain pass before 0700 hrs at earliest . So we should be in position by 06000 hrs . Airstrike at the bridegs shall take palce anytime between 0600 and 0700 hrs on our signal and they will be in station for renderieng nesscery assistance if things go out of control . It is best we strike in daylight to avoid any avoidable hostage casuality . Since both hostages are white females difrentiating them from the teros should not be much of a probelem. It is estimated there are about 12 armed men and three female which includes the two hostages and thier female escort .

Since it will be a daylight operation please include snow camo jackets which you need to change into before daylight .primary communication frequency shall be ----- and secondary communication frequency shall be --- . i shall lead team c ,capt mohit etam a and capt shivram team b .Try to use infra signal lamps for inter team communication though the afgans having any kind of radio scrambler is unlikely .

The flight time from herat to qula-i-naw id 20 minutes and round trip shall approx one hour including take off and landing . Sothe first flight shall take off at 0200 second at 0300 hrs and last flight at 0400 hrs . Al aproaches will be from north west and exit same way to avoid unnessecery alarm to the kidnappers .

Since real time video down load is not possible in this case -real timeaudio intel shall be provided direct from global hawk operator on frequency -----ku band via insat 4c dedicated transponder and shall be available to all the team leaders on real time basis .

The discussion went on and at the same time the soldiers checked and rechecked their weapons ,thier cutes their com gear,side arms,magazine loads including smooth action of the springs and all one more time .

BAGRAM AIRBASE - 0200 HRS
-----------------------------------
F/L ranjita watched as the ground crew finished fuelling up the two mirage 2000s .The dolphin shaped 500 kg laser guided bombs looked innocent enough .She double checked the 30 mm ammo belt for her twin defa cannon and only then decieded to take a cat nap before her pre mission brief at 0400 hrs and scheduled take off at 0500 hrs .She and her wingman were each expected to take out a roa bridge no 65 a and b precisely at 0600 hrs after a positive weapon release confirmation from the special forces commander on ground . She did not know that the commander in this case was major sriram ,not that would have made any differnce to her but then indian army special forces like all other special forces in world never disclose thier identity or thier missions come what may.

Bed of Thorns

The Prime Minister was alone in his office. The room was silent except the murmur of the AC and the computer. He was tired, he was angry, and he was confused. Not once in his long career as an economist, burocrat or as a politician he had so much in a day, with so much at stake.

Ever after he authorized the help package to Afghanistan, things had turned from bad to worse. It was a logical decision that time. A better Afghanistan was definitely in the good interest of India, and it was only natural for the newest member of global power to discharge her duties at ernest. But once India got the foot in, the US and Nato forces has slowly, but surely started to pull out, leaving the Indians to take the brunt. Finally, he had to authorize a full scale military deployment there, just to protect the Indian establishments.

The domestic political situation is not encouraging either. The communists are openly criticising the military deployment wherever they can. Though not in a big way, the markets are hurting. The Sensex has flattened at the 18000 range. The foreign investors are slowly pulling out of the market. The instincts of the hardcore economist started warning.

A former PM had said the worst job in the world is that of the Indian PM. Nothing could be more true. It is indeed a bed of thorns. Only that a real bed of thorns would become dull as time goes, but the position of PM would not.

On top of everything, the unthinkable has happened today. Early in the morning a bust operation at Mumbai resulted in discovery of some suspicious material. Preliminary analysis at BARC confirmed that the material was in fact nuclear. According to their initial report that came over the securenet an hour ago, the package contained a machined plutonium core and panels that looked like explosive lens parts. However, no triggering or arming mechanism was found. the BARC scientists expressed septicism on whether it was possible at all to get a nuclear explosion with the material, since the explosive lens and the core did not match each other. However, it was perfectly capable to be made into what is called a "dirty bomb".

Efforts are underway to analyse the core and the lenses in view to identify the origin. It was also suggested to seek help from IAEA in this regard.

Then there was the briefing report from the Ops Directors involved. The Mumbai group claimed that they tracked the material based on their own sources, and those pointed to ISI. However, the middle east group claimed the material was the one they were tracking from Indonesia. The reports also had notes by the National Security Advisor wo did the debrief.

According to the NSA's report, the personnel apprehended along with the package sided with the story by the Mumbai group. But the NSA has also mentioned that their ready acceptance that they are relted to ISI and LeT looked fishy. On the other hand, the story by the Dubai group had a number of disconnects as well. It is true that they were tracking something to the same train, but there are no conclusive proof either way.

But the truth remains that a nuclear device was smuggled into the country, and if not for the vigilant intelligence community, it could have been exploded. Luckily the media has not reported it yet. But when it does, it is going to be a bigger firestorm. There will be cries for blood for sure. The connection with Pakistan would be immediately assumed and call for Cold Start will be raised.

The PM shuddered himself on the word Cold Start. It is a weapon like the one given by Indra to Karna. The Shakthi could be used only on one enemy, and it is indefeatable. The Cold Start doctrine was specifically designed for Pakistan and also for this kind of situation. It is the PM's responsibility to take that decision.

The noise of the door opening woke the PM up. The private secretary came in and said "They are here Sir". The PM rose and walked to the adjoining conference room. The Home inister, External Affirs minister and the National Security Advisor were assembled there.

They would soon decide what they are going to do about it tomorrow.

To be Continued

RHINO AIRFORCE BASE CAMP -HERAT AIRPORT -1300 HRS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
major srinath finished the brief and allowed his team an hours break to get organised and to say get in the right frame of mind . He himself was in an ultra catious mood and the reason had nothing to do with terrorists he will be taking out in a few hours time on that fron he had no regret whatsoever in past or expect have any in future .He was cautious because of the presence of high profile hostages and knew any botch up can have long term international ramifications.

While the basic training and capabilities of special forces like paras or rangers or spetznaz and the specialised counter terrorist forces like sas,delta and national security guards are more or lss same like shooting accuracy,good camoflage,high altitude low opening and high opening jumping along with heli borne and in some cases on or underwater movememt however the difference becomes apparent as the actual assualt begins.Special operation forces are tarined to use maximum destructive force with fire power or explossives or both to kill and destroy the target quickly as quickly as possible. However for a counterterrorist team in a hostage rescue duty ahs a totally different objective that is to save the lives of the hostages and in the process if the terrorists need be eliminated so be it.This basic diffrence i objective between special forces and counter terrorist groups introduces the need for totally different tactics once the bullets start flying and some times even before that .

Technically all or atleast most couter terorist operation takes place at extreme close range say 5 mtrs or less which calls for for far advanced level of close quarter battel skills than usally required for special op operations.In a more detailed way close qurter battle skill implies a differnt level of discipline in weapon handling ,shooting teqniques target approach methods and ofcourse unit co ordination and operating tactics .

For example when a speical ops group is tasked with takinh out a building they will start with long range atack with rocket propelled grenades or anti armour missiles followed quickly by ultra high speed medium amchine gun fire and finally clear floor by floor,level by level with grenades and rifle fire .Whiel this is a perfectly acceptable military tactics -the ressult will be catastrophic if used in a hostage rescue situation. The main draw back of such amethod is it is too slow and will give the terrorists enough time to execute the hostages therby making the whole exercise futile .

In a hostage rescue situation time is of essnce particualrly once the actual physical assault strts and the terrorists are alerted .The unit of time is measuerd in seconds and extend to few minutes at maximum .Now to achieve the objective within extermely narrow window of oppertunity attack precision assumed paramount importance .This is best achiebved with the help of real time intel usally thru resources on ground like snipers in position or elctronic intel thru optical fibre supprted flexible cameras ,infra red imagery and laser absed audio taps which can recerate the conversation within a room by measuring the tiny vibrations onthe window pane and then recreate synthtically the conversation within room

the basic objective of such real time intel is essentialy to measure the strenght and disposition of the hostile forces and if possible a sketchy profile of their personalities and identify the group leader all of which helps in taking a snap decision when actual assault is in progress.Along with this locating the hostages is critical or they may get caught up in intense cross fire and die along with the terrorists.Finally the entry and exit route need to finalised at the last moment .

For major srinath only real time intel was comming via a dedicated audio link from the global hawk operator (her accent was a problem but sinec he was recording evrything he could afford to re listen to the running commentry when in doubt . Team b once in position shall hopefully provide more reatime info which will help him fianlise the attack plan and time to initiate the assualt and diversion.Since the histages are in close quarters with the terros use of explossives was totally ruled out for this mission .The bmp 3 he hoped will allow the three teams to approach the interception zone quicky from the drop zone and hopefully all three teams shall in ambush position before the hostage convoy manages to come out of the sajdk pass.

use of explossives in a hostage rescue sitation is always tricky rather risky .While explossive ordance disposal is a common enogh skill within the special forces while applied to counter terrorist absed hostage rescue situation the use of explossives to gain access become a high precision skill particularly with respect to amount and nature of explossives to be used ans well as the safest locaton where the consequent blast will have minimum chance of harming the hostages .

A classic example of wrong use of explossive charge in a hostage rescue situation was when egyptian task force 777 tried to gain access to inside a hijacked aircraft in malta.The egyptian special forces decided to blow a hole in the roof of the hijacked aircraft away from the centre line fuel tank of b-737. Apart from that they also wanted to shock the teros inside with the force of explossion so that they can amke a smooth entry and consequently used much more explossive than required.The net ressult was ressulting explossion ripped out six rows of seats causing twenty deaths.This was not the only mistake they made and finally the death included 57 hostages .

Major srinath was sure he has taken the right decision in banning all kind of explossive in this mission

Admin can you please edit my user-id to "Shanker's_fan" from rp_singh.

HERAT AIRPORT - CONDOR FLIGHT -IL-76X1- 0200 HRS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Group captain nandita sahani finished her pre flight check list with her first officer and had one last look back.The two bmp 3 s and two gypsies were all carefully stowed and the two teams of paras lined the fuselage all very quite and very relaxed . The finalised flight plan called for droping team A from 30000 ft in a typical high altitude high opening drop about 30 kms north west of desiganted drop zone at 220 knots , take a wide cicle away from the unpaved airfield and come back a low altitude parachute extraction for the bmp 3s and gypsies at lowest altitude considered saf for the aircraft preferably less than 150 ft ,climb out to 20000 ft and make another drop 5 kms from drop zone at 150 knots of the second team for a classic high altitude low opening drop then quickly return to herat and pick up the rest of the gear and team c for another drop in 2 hrs time .

Fortunately the weather was great and wind vwlocity at 30-20000 ft was steady at 25 knots which meant she could use it as head wind to bring down her ground speed while still keeping within the minimum indicated air speed threshold of the aircraft .

Air insertion while used by all the special forces of the world perhaps no force has used with so much ingenuity like the us navy seals .Seals use para jumping in all its forms static line and free fall parachuting ,jumping out of a helo into ocean with a zodiac in tow is a normal phenomena .One particular system worth mentioning is the spie or special insertion extraction rig or the sky hook which used an aircraft to hook a line attached to a balloon at top and a navy seal at bottom.once hooked the seal was whisked off at nearly 200 kms/hr from the danger zone and then slowly winched up into the aircraft.However this method of extarction though had several advantages was discontinued for normal exercises after petty officer foxs line snapped in mid air and he feel to his death in san diego bay.

Static line jumps are ofcourse most common and considered safest .Seals routinely use this method for jumping from both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft usally not from high altitude and aircrafts used range from c-130,c-5-c-2,mh-60 in fact the only restriction being the aircraft shoul have some place to attach the static line.

The next level of para jumping takes all para qualified special forces thru the routine of free fall .With the terminal velocity during free fall reaching nearly 250 kms/hr it is not for all .Most experienced free fall divers admit in private they were terrified during the first jump but later on the exitement of jump and the sensation of rushing speed takes over and they almost starts enjoying the experience.Also it is not for the weak hearted ,pulling the rip chord at the right moment and to quickly open the reserve chute if the main chute fails to open needs hair trigger response and reflexes of an african mamba .

And then they are pushed into next level fo high altitude low aopening jumps where you deliberately stop yourself from pulling the chute open till very close to ground and the drop itself can be very very long from 35000 ft to 3000 ft or less .The air temperature at that altitude can be as low as minus 40 degree celcius and oxygen level way below minimum . Oxygen cylinders become an essential component of the jump and sinec lack of oxygen can cause quick loss of senses pressure sensitive rip chord actuators help which will allow the chute to open at predetermined external pressure determined by the altitude and thereby allow the jumper to hit ground at an acceptable velocity possibly saving his life

High altitude hi opening jumps are perhaps the most difficult of all where apart from being exposed to low oxygen low pressure low temperature environ for a far longer time the jumper has also to navigate his chute like a glider over a distance typically 20-40 kms as he descends may be in night with help of wrist gps,altimeter and sometimes if lucky voice over radio commands from ground.The advantage of this insertion is -stealth since the aircraft never comes near the insertion zone the chances of terrorists getting alerted by aircraft engine sound is remote .The aircrafts are usally fitted out with iff transponders sqwaking on normal commercial aircraft code to confuse the issue further and usally flies along the commercial air corridor for bigger fo the flight plan .

- Herat tower - india lima zero one -requests ifr to maymana
- india lima -tower - cleared ifr to mymana -altitude 30000 ft -contact ground when ready
- herat ground -india lima zero one - request taxi clearence -ifr to mymana
- india lima zero one - herat ground follow taxi way bravo -delta -seven nine charli -contact tower when ready

Nandita sahani initited the taxi run with practised ease of many hundred before as she released the parking brake and pushed up the collective throttle 3 notches - noted with satisfaction the shrill whine of the turbines as it picked up speed and then the slow push in her back confirimg the heavy aircraft is in motion and then pulled back the colective throttle one notch as she gently steered the large wings and the airframe towards the hammer head almost 10000 ft away .once on the taxiway she pushed up the collectiv throttle once again two notches let the ground speed build up to 40 kms per hour and then pulled back as she approached the juction of taxiwat and runway . Fortunately the runway lights were in working order (though not all of them) allwing her to osition the il-76 neatly in the hammer head and t take off clearence without much time waste

-herat tower -india lima zero one -request take off clearence
-india lima zero one -cleared for immediate take -fly runway heading -climb 30000 ft -over
- rolling now -herat tower

Nandita pushed the throttle half and pulled back immediately as the candid started rolling she deftly steered it to the centerline of runway checked for obstructions-there was none except the small mountans few kms down range and pushed the throttles all the way forward and after afew seconds as the turbine rpm crossed 90% mark release her brakes .The il 76 strted moving slowly at first as if measuring the load and then started picking up speed within 3000ft she was at vi and nandita rotated the nose by pulling on the control column gently but firmly ,a fewseconds later the wheels left ground and air speed picked up rapidly as her xo slapped up the landing gears .

Shanker baba ke jai ho....

CONDOR FLIGHT - IL 76 X 1 -0210 HRS
----------------------------------------------
For group captain nandita sahani while flying an il 76 was routine low altitude parachuet extraction of two bmp3 and two gypsies on the first pass from less than 20ft over ground was still a tricky business . But befre that the fist batch of paras need to be dropped off 30 kms downwind at high altitude and low speed which by itself called for quite a lot of flying skills .She kept the flaps in take of configuration and started banking north west to gain altitudeat max climb rate without adding to much to the air speed . As the aircraft came in to drop zone her first officer switched on the amber drop ready light back in the fuslage and the first batch of 10 paras hooked up to the static line for the high altitude high opening drop making one last check of the gear

check list
- MT1X rear open cell static line parachute -o.k
- NTR 1 reserve parachute - o.k
- static line extension - not required -o.k
-signaling infra strobe and flares - o.k
- personal gear - weapon ,ammo magazines .eye proetctor,nomex gloves
knife -o.k
combat equipement rigged for jump -yes
rucksack,harness lowering line - available
-oxygen cylinder pressure -o.k
oxygen demand valve -operatioanal

Just as the paras finished the final drop checklist the rear clam shell doors strted opening up and the aircraft leveled out as the engine note died down.The cold air hit them like a sledge hammer on the chest driving out all air from the lungs and then they were jumping into dark nothing .The slipstream caught them half way thru the drop and picked up like rag dolls and pushed them out and very soon the large aircraft was just a dark shadow in the distance . Each switched on thier infra strobes and slowly formed up after their chutes have deployed with the elad member showing the way guided by his wrist gps and altimeter towards the now desserted airstrip selected as drop zone for this opearttion.


Group captain nandita took the candid away from the drop zone and then slowly put her in a shallow dive and cut power 50% max and increased flap setting to 45 degree as she lined up for the single pass multi drop mode. She would have prefered to switch on the landing lights in the final approach phase but thought it to be too risky and may jepordies the mission so decided against is but requested her xo to give alti reading every 50 ft till 500 ft and then evry 10 ft as she wuld line up for the drop.She adjusted her night vision goggles and could see in the distance the first group of paras touchingground and setting up the infra strobes linning the unpaved runway .

She knew maintaining stability as extreme low altitude is critical and equally important is to maintain the correct pitch angle as the heavy load gets off the airframe .She eased up on the stick to give a 3 degree nose down approach as she crossed 100 ft and her xo signalled the load master to standby for releasing the drag chute . the conversation became somewaht tense and cryptic as they approached the low altitude parachute extraction zone

- altitude 30 ft over runway ,mentioned wing commander vijay
- roger leveling ut at 20 ft
- 20 ft and level -air speed 150 knots
-reducing speed to 130 knots -flaps max
- air speed 135 -130 knots -max flaps
-lower undercariage said nandita as she pushed up the collective throttle to 65% power to keep the air speed steady at 135 knots and hit the load realese signal

Back inside the load master snapped the drag chute realese which blossomed out and then the main 3 cluster chutes flared out creating a drag force of nearly 10tons enough to release the parking blocks on dual rail parachute extractor assembly and the first and then the second bmp 3 whisked off the aircraft followed quicly by the gypsy pellets which landed on the unpaved runway with a explossion of dust and small stones

Nandita quickly pulled on the control yoke to come out fo the pitch down atitude to nose u attitude till the artificial horizon showed 10 degree up as she simultaneously pushed the throttle to max military power and reduced flap settings to 15 degree for a quick climb out to circuit and her charge respondeded smartly as the mighty turbines whinned in unison to defy the call of gravity and eager to get back to their elements .

The low altitud parachute extraction method was developed to solve the problem of quickly placing cargo on ground where the runways are not adequate or not safe like in vetnam from hostile attack.It also has the added advantage of safe delivery of heavy equipment like bmp 3s without taking the risk of catastrophic parachute failure at high altitude .

Low altitude parachute extraction clls for pehaps the highest level of flying skill from a pilot ,flying barely few feet of the drop zone at stall speed and with unbalancing pitch effect of a moving heavy load -carrying a laps mission is certainly not evryones cup of tea.Only similar event is perhaps the take off and go around event on a carrier deck . Only diffrence the carrier aircrafts have much higher wt t power rtio and they dont eject a laod almost equal to thier dry wt near stall speed .

The il-76 made one last turn as nandita brought her over the airstrip this time at a safer altitude of 20000 ft and the b team jumped out in a free fall classic high altitude low opening air drop,heading straight for the drop zone and nandita sahani banked hard right away from the airstrip for the pick up of the second drop sortie of the night.

The users of a reputed internet forum found a hugely popular thread the next day, and within 24 hours it filled 9 pages and the avatar II started. It went like this:

Dirty Bomb at Mumbai

#1: Author: Rudradev, Posted: 07 May 2010
—

Mumbai police intercepted what looks like a "Dirty Bomb" yesterday. No information on source yet

[url=http://about:blank.htm]Link[/url]

A package was seized from an apartment at Panvel by Mumbai police based on information from the intelligence agencies. A source within Mumbai police indicated that the package was taken to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, but declined to comment whether it was a nuclear weapon or not. The home minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Shyam Joshi at a press conference at Mumbai has confirmed that there was a raid at the said location, but denied any involvement of BARC.

So it starts folks. The chinese poodle has started the dirty game. BR had been expecting something rash from dictator no 2, especially with all the troubles he is having recently.

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

#2: Author: Rangudu, Location: USA Posted: 07 May 2010
—
The report doesn't talk about who is responsible. Since this is a busted operation, probably no one will take credit.

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

#3: Author: Laks, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
[url=http://about:blank.htm]http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=8045637&CatID=2[/url]

The captured pigs claimed they are with LeT. The minister says the package is being analysed. No info on involvement of BARC.

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

#4: Author: Singha, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
That sounds fishy. Would the pigs openly claim that?

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

#5: Author: DeepakD, Location: Mumbai Posted: 07 May 2010
—
This is a big story here in local media. RTV is showing interviews with the neighbours and the paanvala now.

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

#6: Author: Singha, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
The RTV clips came on their national channel too. It seems they took a big square box and four people.

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

#7: Author: Rangudu, Location: USA Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Would General Yusuf be foolish enough to do such things? Any such action would trigger a war. Does he have a death wish? Something doesn't add up with the Dirty Bomb theory.

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

#8: Author: Laks, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
NDTV:
A package with unknown content is captured from an apartment at Panvel, Mumbai, and four men were arrested by Mumbai police early yesterday. What appeared to be a routine raid became a concern when reports came out alleging the package beign moved to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. However, the home ministry has denied any involvement of BARC, and would only confirm that the package has some criticality associated with it, and is being analysed.

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

#9: Author: Vasan, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
RTV quotes an official of Mumbai police confirming the involvement of BARC. That is bad news.

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

#10: Author: Ramana, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Who wants to start a war now? I don't that would be Yusuf. I think this is related to our increased involvement at Afghanistan. We are the new target.

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

#11: Author: Suresh, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Ramanaji, WADR, Yusuf if Taliban had any access to any nuclear stuff, they would have used it on unkil by now.

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

#12: Author: Brett, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Don't underestimate the drug lords of Afghanistan. With their network spreading all around central asia, they can easily smuggle a nuclear device from the FSU black market. And they are the people who get most benefited by a war between India and Pakistan.

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

#13: Author: Raju, Location: Drinking tea at RYK Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Well, what about the freedom fighters at occupied Balochistan. They too are a party of interest.

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

#14: Author: Rangudu, Location: USA Posted: 07 May 2010
—
If that is the case, even POTUS Chuck Hagel is an interested party. He wanted to kick yusuf's musharraf for some time.

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

#15: Author: Singha, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
The LeT, MMA and all other pigs are solidly behind Yusuf, who's behind is solidly under the lizard. Would the lizard want a war? Maybe. After all, we took the biggest trading partner position from then didn't we?

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

#16: Author: Shiv, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Gen Yusuf, just like his predecessor, is not suicidal. Islam forbids suicide except for jihad. So, I think we can rule out Gen Yusuf from the list. My pskological analysis of Gen Yusuf, as I presented in the Islamism thread, is that he is a strong islamist, and he will not take such a drastic action.

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

#17: Author: GeorgeJ, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
I don't normally follow the HAF, but if this is true. I say it is time to gas up all those MKIs.

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

#18: Author: rsingh, Location: Brussels Posted: 07 May 2010
—
I hope they have increased security in Delhi Haydrabad and Banglore etc.

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

#19: Author: Singha, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
BARC has confirmed that it was indeed a nuclear device.

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

#20: Author: Dileep, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Singha, at least don't pull a Singha on THIS THREAD!

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

#21: Author: RajGuru, Location: South of Musi, Deccan Plateau Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Source? Singha.

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

#22: Author: Singha, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
[url=http://about:blank.htm]http://rnsindia.com/news.asp?ID=765342&Section=4[/url]
Dileep, give it a rest, after all these years!!!!

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

#23: Author: Sudhir, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Well, RNS is not best known for integrity!

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

#24: Author: enqyoob, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Ayyyooo! Its a dirty dirty bum onlee saar! We should keep restraint onlee saar!

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

#25: Author: Alok_N Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Do we have details on what exactly was in the package? One can not simply bundle some nuclear material and explosives to make a dirty bomb [Removed by admin. We don't want to give any ideas do we? Arun_S Admin Hat On.)

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

#26: Author: SGupta, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
What about Nawas Sharief and Benazir, and what about Musharraf? They would be the best gainers if a war breaks out between India and Pakistan.

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

#27: Author: Rudradev, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
SGupta, that is a far fetched theory. How can they do such a thing? And what is Musharraf got to do with it? Isn't he enjoying unkil's hospitality.

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

#28: Author: SGupta, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Musharraf is trying to ally with Nawas and Benazir to get back on Yusuf.

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

#29: Author: Ramana, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
SGupta, that is crazy thought. We don't need conspiracy theories here. Consider yourself warned.

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

#30: Author: PIyengar, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Any reason for getting rid of Yusuf would be welcome, so what are you waiting for?

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

#31: Author: enqyoob, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
Aiyoo Iyengar swamee, long time ago Dubya expected eye-rackees dancing in the streets of Bag-Dad. So, would you do the honour?

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

#32: Author: ramana, Posted: 07 May 2010
—
If there really was a nuclear device inside the country, there should be a retaliation. We should not jump into conclusions. Every effort should be employed to find out who did it and an appropriate response made.

And it went on and on..

Nice summation. Will go easy on warnings.

Bed of Thorns

The Prime Minister looked wearily on the neatly bound dossiers stacked on his table. Each one contributed to the complexity of the issue at hand, and therefore to his misery. He had to take himself away from most of the business today to go through them. He even cancelled the meeting with the finance and commerce ministers about the HAL project to build wing sections for A350. It was a prestige project he personally hooked with president Villepin of France. But once the current mess came into being, all his attention was on that.

The top volume was the report from O. P. Malhotra about his side of the story. The middle east ops, with the help of the San Francisco and Singapore offices have neatly built up their story, theorizing that the trio of General Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto has planted the device to put blame on the Pakistani government. Their story, however, have certain holes in it. First and foremost, they have no information or track on the device itself. Their story was solid to the extent that Musharraf was involved in some clandestine operation dealing with a boatyard in Indonesia and a new boat sailed from there to Dubai. Intercepting the boat did not yield any conclusive evidence. The only bright point was that it is proven that some cargo was dropped off at Goa from that boat. It was also concluded that the said cargo was brought on board the Konkan Express. The solid reasoning ended there, with an assumption that it was the same cargo that was apprehended by the Mumbai police.

Then came the report made by the home ministry, and Mumbai ops of NSO. It detailed communication intercepts and chatter during a five day period preceding the interception. It also included tipoffs from various sources. The story looked sound, but there was no information on what was the origin of the cargo. It was not even clear how that got on the train in the first place. The finaly document in that file was the confession by the men who were apprehended. They claimed part of an LeT sleeper cell who picked it up on the train as per pre arrangement. The NSO director of Mumbai has very enthusiastically described the story, but on top of all that, there was a note of disagreement by the RAW chief. In his opinion, that story was too convincing.

The small file with the BARC emblem didn't have too much content. It basically said that the package in fact contained a weapon grade plutonium core with a partial assembly of explosive lenses. The core was machined properly, but was encased in a shielding of wrought lead that was crudely made. The explosive lenses didn't have proper triggers. They were embedded with regular fulminate primers and commercial grade shock fuses. The report discounted any possibility of making a nuclear fission explosion out of the material, even with additional parts. All it could do would be what the media calls a "dirty bomb"

Another file contained the small amount of media reports about the incident. Though all efforts were made to cover up the BARC involvement, it eventually made into the press. Speculation was rampant in special interest groups, but the general public has not yet taken it up. The PM shuddered to think of in which all directions the mass hysteria can turn once unleashed.

His team of colleagues and advisors are hopelessly divided on the issue. The NSA is convinced that it is the Islamists of Pakistan. The RAW chief strongly disagrees. He supports the Dubai theory and calls for further investigation in association with USA. The Defence Minister thinks it is a direct action by Gen Yusuf. A personal advisor cautioned him against trusting the USA on this. His opinion was that the USA is somehow involved in this. His question was, "How can Gen Musharraf do something without his handlers knowledge?". BARC on the other hand, suggested using IAEA facilities to test the plutonium to trace its origin.

All this details should not draw the attention away from the core issue. There was a nuclear device inside the country. That warrants a suitable response, both according to common sense and also according to the public policy of the country. It is imparative that the real perpertrators to be identified, and a suitable retaliation is delivered.

And of course, there is an easy way out, which is in fact very tempting. Just take all the evidence that points to Pakistan, present it to whomsoever concerned, and invoke Cold Start. There is good example for this, by none other than the USA. This will solve the long standing problem of Pakistan as well. But it is going to be very costly for the country.

The other alternative would be to downplay the nuclear issue and cover it up. If it is not Pakistan, there would be no viable target for India to attack. Consider for a moment the Dubai story is completely true. What can India do? Whom would we attack? What if USA is involved? Maybe we can blame the Taliban again, but who is going to believe that the runt Taliban could pull this off? That would be more ridiculous than Colin Powell's presentation to the UN about Iraq!

So, the PM paced back and forth. A virtual hot potato in his hands. The bed of thorns that is the prime ministership of India was more hurtful now.

Does not End...

So, there you have it folks. The scene is set for a historic moment. But we will have to leave the Prime Minister at his office in stasis, till we at BRF could help him take a decision. This humble observer is no way qualified to advice him. That must come from the audience of this little narrative.

The board being set up, the narrator is going to take a break. It is now time to analyse the situation as you please, and derive conclusions. The PM will act when he gets sufficient amount of confidence from the input he sees here.

baap re! Dileep, you clearly have been psychologically profiling venerable forum members! now the CIA and ISI will be after your profiling skills!

SAJDEK PASS BETWEEN BRIDGE 65 A -65 B STRECH-0500 HRS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tension was in air as the 3 bmp 3 wit accompanying gypsies raced out of the air strip to interception zone . Team A broke off after a short while headed for the abandoned tanks by the side of the roads. Team c headed for the dry river bed skirting bridge 65 A and team B headede for other side of the road near bridge 65 b . Once in position major srinath wnet on tactical net and his young assitant quickly patched up to the incomming mirage striek flight and globak hawk controler on board uss abraham linchon almost a thousand mile away .

- charlie lead - all teams report
- bravo team in position -over
-alpha team in position -rady to detoante in 5 minutes
- sky hawk in air -eta target zone 65 alpha in 50 minutes
- global in contact - expecetd target entry into strike zone in less than one hour repeat one hour
- sky hawk -charlie lead -take out 65 bravo first followed by 65 alpha -confirm understood
- charlie lead -sky hawk -message understtheood -take out furthest 65 bravo first to vlock convoy movement followed by 65 alpha to prevent escape - please indicate ground team position
- sky hawk -charlie lead all teams 500 mtrs away from 65 alpha and 65 bravo -please make good delivery - inform initiation of strike run -target illuminatiion avaialable in specified sequence
- roger that charlie lead - sky hawk turning into attack run -mark target on my command
- standing by sky hawk one
- charlie lead -global hawk - convoy crossing bridge 65 alpha in two minutes
- shyhawk one -charlie lead - initiate attack run on 65 bravo now -repeat now -target illuminayed

F/L ranjita switched on the powerful RDY radar on ground attack mode and made slight course correctin by slight push on the control stick forward and to left as her right hand armed up weapon station 2 energising the first of the two 500 kg laser guided bomb as she slowed down the aircraft by a few second deployment fot he air braked as the sleek mirage nosed down she retracted the air brakes and pulled up on the stick and once agin leveled out at 5000 ft altitude abve the uneven terrain ,the dispalay on her weapon status showed the bomb has aquired reflected laser beam from target illuminated by ground forces and she once agaon moved the stick slightly to right to get the cross hair dead centre on the concrete centarl pillar barely 1000 mtrs from the target and 5000ft up precisely the electromagnetic clamp recieved the signal from attack computer and released its hold on the medium sized bomb which once released took on a parabolic trajectory as it sailed thru air at more less the same velocit as the releasing aircraft and quickly did its own final course correction as the fins moved a little and then hit the central pylon smak in the middle and exploded with a mutted thud .

The bridege built over 50 years back was not designed to take on this kind of punishment . It tried to stay in original position for a few seconds and then the unbalanced forces won the battle as the two cantilever spans both side of the central column came down in a rush of rubble and dust

GUL MOHAMDS CONVOY - 0530 HRS - OVER BRIDGE 65 A
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For gul mohamed the journey was a long and tiring one and he almost dozed off once they were out f sajdek pass and strted crossing the number of small old bridges which mark the exit from sajdek and very soon gul mohamed expected to be in open roads when crossed the first of the bridged and heard rather than saw the dull thud of a precision guidede bomb so favourite of the americans . And then he could see the bridege about 1000 mtrs away dissapear in a cloud of dust with a dull thud .
Gul mohamed was no full -he knew they were under military strike that too from air but could not understand how the americans or the indians or whoeever they were can rescue the hostage with a supersonic jet

CHARLIE TEAM - 0535HRS- SAJDEK PASS EXIT BETWEEN BRIDGE 65A AND 65 B
------------------------------

- Sky hawk -charlie lead - good show - now give me 5 minutes and take out 65 bravo same way
- charlie lead -sky hawk -thanks - comming around in 5 minutes repeat 5 minutes -over
- global hawk -charlie lead - do yu read
- go ahead charlie lead -global hawk reads you 10/4
- global hawk -please inform target activity
- charlie lead -target convoy slowing down - wait -they have stopped -see personnel comming out -standing by

- sky hawk -change in plan -take out 65 alpha now -repeat now

The mirage 2000 5000 ft up banked sharply and came in with a screaming dive with flares popping out every 3 seconds as it flew right over the highway ,over the terr convoy and dropped its second bomb without laser guidance assistance right on the center of the bridge and climbed up like a rocket and then bankedout f field f view of those in road

- charlie lead - sky hawk - 65 alpha is now history .
- thanks sky hawk we all owe you one -please stand by for assitance with 30 mike mike if required
- roger that charlie lead -sky hawk on standby

GUL MOHAMEDS CONVOY WITH HOSTAGES -0545 HRS -BETWEEN 65A AND 65 B
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gul mohamed could not believe as he cowered behind his toyota as the mirage 2000 came in for a fast low level pass barely few hundred feet over the road defeaning them with its jet blast and he could see the ugly cigar shaped bombs that hung from her belly . He thought the bomb is neant for them and close his eyes but then the aircraft flew over and when he could muster enough courage to open his eyes the bridge they have passed abrely 10 minutes back was gone ,a large gaping hole straight into ravine where once there was the comparitively well maintained if some what narrow road .

The two small tanks (it is the first time gul mohamed has seen a bmp3 with its 100 mm cannon and 7.62 mm mm co axial machine gun ) came up from the dry river beds and turned as the large gun nozzles dipped straight at him .

In the distance a bright fire suddenly lit the sky . The old t-72s now packed with c-4 and detonated on command from major srinath threw up a huge olumn of oily smoke making gul mohameds confusion complete and giving the impression of a large force in strike .

As he stood up to give his last command to execute the hostages , major srinath too careful aim -held his breadth as the star lite scope on his mp5 rested dead center on gul mohameds throat just over the chest cavity and then slowly squeezed the trigger . The recoil was minimal but there was nothing minimal about the high velocity bullet which spliced thru the intervening distance with a characteristic whiplash crack and entered gul voice box hit the first vertibra severing it completely causing instant paralysis of all movements and ofcourse speech as the terr chief floped onto ground and choked to death with his own blood.

The fagans still tried to fight knowing it was futile as they started firing erratically at yet unseen enemies and at the armoured vehicles themselves in blind panic the para took them down in systemetic maner

It was all over in less than 90 seconds .

Up in the sky f/l ranjita saxena did an impromptu barrel roll and then dissapeared into suthern sky -she was running low on fuel and still had miles to go .

Whatever happened to Ranjita, to Benazir, and to all the other warrior babes ... hey, we need more of our daily fix of fighting--guns, boats, and in the minds of our leaders and warriors.

kya dileep bhai, needle kho chuke ho kya??

long time no post!!

RahulM, pls ref the ending of my last post. The PM is in a dilemma now. He got a nuke in the country and two groups of people claim two theories. Both have grave implications to the country, and no solid proof is available either way. What is he going to do? Right now I don't have the faintest clue!! I thought all the gurus who read this would help me.

Alas, even "The Ascetic" didn't help. So, the readers got to wait till I figure out what is going to happen.

On top of that, I am travelling to good ole' Malluland tomorrow, and will be there for four weeks. So, till I come back, no story.

NSN Page 3

It is rumoured that a voice was heard thundering from the distant hills of Chennapatna, reportedly that of the first accidentally internet enabled self actualized Ascetic.

It is believed to have gone thus: "There shall be no more violence."

When this reporter went to ascertain the facts, he met up, accidentally, with the Ascetic, who was surrounded by an environmentally unfriendly stash of frito lays and lipton tea bags and an old refrigerator.

NSN: "Guruji, namoshkar."

A: "Reporter puthar, the TSP is prone to violence. It is a well established fact. So it is but natural that when he finds a nuke, he triggers it to explode."

He added cryptically, "even when he finds it to be in his own territory."

"And that shall be the lesson to the rest of the world to finally make peace with itself."

NSN bows with respect and bids adieu to the Ascetic.

For Tourists

Khushab is at a drive of 45 minute from Sargodha.You reach the Khushab after crossing the river Jhelum.It is of great pleasure travelling on some height with great river Jhelum flowing below.

The name Khushab is said to be of historical importance.Once an emperor passed through Khushab on his way.he drank the water and acclaimed the quality of water and called it a "place having fine water".

Khush means "fine" and aab means "water".

An entry from the federation of american scientists website:

The 50 MWt, heavy water and natural uranium research reactor at Khushab is a central element of Pakistan's program for production of plutonium and tritium for advanced compact warheads.

Khushab, with a capacity variously reported at between 40 MWT to 50 MWT [and as high as 70 MWT], was "commissioned" in March 1996, and had been under construction with Chinese assistance since the mid-1980s.

According to a Pakistani press report ["Pakistan's Indigenous Nuclear Reactor Starts Up," Islamabad The Nation, April 13, 1998], the Khushab plutonium production reactor had gone critical and began operating in early 1998.

At The Hush of Dawn

At 4:17AM on Feb 16 2008, there was a huge explosion near the Jhelum, 3 kms from the Khushab nuclear facility, believed to be the detonation of a nuclear bomb with a signature almost immediately identified by US "seismological stations" to be from or somewhat enhanced version of an RA115/6 from Ukraine widely believed to be in the possession of the Al Qaeda.

It was found to be identical to the samples obtained by the Indian intelligence within the Indian territory and which was currently lying with the BARC.

An alert was sent from the US State Department, with UN approval, to the Pakistan Government to the effect, asking them to exercise total restraint, a corresponding one sent to the GOI almost ordering PM Arora to set into effect the cessation of hostilities, a temporary ceasefire.

A nuclear explosion at Khushab was the least expected of happenings anywhere in the international community. The chain reaction that set in, led to some surprising conclusions.

Great going Rajpa!

Check your yahoo mail pls.

A new twist in the scenarios -a good change from my clancyish scenarios -looks like the thread is getting more and more intersting

Shanker are you really busy somewhere or the story will abruptly end.
I am waiting impatiently.

Gentlemen

I have been fasinated by Shanker's war scenarios.

Although I have not posted in this forum for a while, the following post is a copy of my version of Indo-Pak war in 2025 over water shortage.

This post has been published elsewhere in IndiaCause website. Please do read it and start a discussion.


Next India-Pakistan War will be over Water Shortage in Pakistan


Pakistanis will fight between themselves over water resources and then blame India for their problems. An already an impoverished nation by 2020 with no social, rural and urban development, but in possession of first class military will divert national attention from internal water disputes to a fight with India. Four Pakistani provinces are fighting over Kalabagh, Basha and host of other water & power management dams. Slowly the blame is being shifted to India. The political, military and religious leadership has already started to tell the nation that India is interfering with their water resources. They quote Baglihar & Wullar dams to back their claims. These claims are untrue, but who is listening. Local populace is being told that that Pakistan has the military muscles to beat India and grab all the water resources from it. Thirsty people will listen to any propaganda. In fact they are being readied for a war. Its beginning was made a few years back when an ugly fight engulfed the Pakistani provinces over fair share of water in Indus, Jhelum & Kabul rivers. Since then every summer, Province of Sindh and Pakistani Punjab fight over water. Usually Pakistani Punjab with larger resources and control over water flow wins, leaving Sindhis seething with anger. The central military leadership calms people’s nerves by raising issues like Baglihar, Wullar with India. Fortunately India is not interested in their internal fight but watches the fun as it unfolds. India’s interest is not to let Pakistan’s military rulers internationalize their internal disputes with false claims of misuse of provisions of Indus Water Treaty by India. So far the success for India has been mediocre. Baglihar issue is with the World Bank. India has already decided to modify the design of the Wullar dam to make it into a run of the river power generation project. It is all intended to keep the Pakistani disputes spilling over into India.

Why is Pakistan So Thirsty for Water?

Primarily Pakistan is a successful agrarian society. Punjab province of Pakistan has been blessed with 30 feet of topsoil and a host of rivers to irrigate it. Even the Alexander’s historian recorded it 325BC that the land they conquered is lush green and very fertile. Earlier the Greek historian Herodotus in fifth century BC had recorded fine Indian wool, which is grown in the fields. He was referring to cotton. Prior to that the Western world had not known about cotton. Additionally five rivers flowing in Punjab with snow fed sources and monsoon rains kept the agriculture progressive. Kings of yesteryears and all conquers whom came down the Khyber Pass did not interfere with the agriculture. They instead exploited it. British were the last to exploit it further from 1875 onwards. They built water works and irrigated fresh land. They settled ex servicemen (mostly Punjabi Mussalman) in this newly developed lands. Agriculture in and around Chenab and beyond to Indus progressed, making this Doab a very progressive land. Partition in 1947 resulted in all of this land being handed over to Pakistan, with Indian Punjab left as an orphaned child with no resources.

Pakistan wasted all this good fortune on strong military and extra territorial ambitions in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Both of these misadventures are proving costly. With agriculture at stand still and huge drain of resources on military, water management received little or no attention. Not until in last ten years, when Sindh province started to complain about lack of water and blamed it on Pakistani Punjab. Then only a bit of attention was turned towards water resources and their exploitation. New studies have indicated that growing population (300 million by 2020) in Pakistan need water resources to feed them and house them. This will require additional 25 Million-Acre Feet (MAF) of water by 2020. That means, new dam construction has to be initiated on priority. New mega projects like Kalabagh & Basha will partly relieve the shortage. Each of these with 7 MAF capacities on Indus will partly relive the shortage. Other smaller dams will add only 20% additional capacity to the shortage. Hence Pakistan, even after feverish water resources building activity in next 10 years, Pakistan will be 10 MAF water short. If you take into account silting of the dam sites, which is a serious problem in snow fed rivers just emerging out of the mountains, the situation is likely to worsen the situation further. Silting has depleted the storage capacity of Mangla Dam (built in 1967) and Tarbrela Dam (built in 1975) by 20% already. By 2020, additional 30% of the storage capacity will be lost to silting. Taking these factors into account the net shortage in next 15 years will be as much as 15 to 18 MAF even if the forgoing mega dams are built.

How do you make up for the above shortage?

The answer for Pakistan is to pick-up a fight with India, its immediate neighbor to the east. Also internationalize the issue where world gets scared of a nuclear war and advises caution to India (India being the big economy by then would be advised to accommodate Pakistan). This scenario is a distinct possibility. It is happening in Siachin & Sir Creek today. Very cleverly manipulated Western media propaganda is advising India to vacate Siachin and Sir Creek. They call them wastelands. Their argument is that fight over these two is meaningless. Advice to India is that in both these disputes India should accommodate Pakistan. This pressure is likely to increase. A lot of future FDI to India and other aid will be tied to the so-called “South Asian Stabilityâ€

SANGSAR VILAGE - KANDAHAR -AFGANISTAN
--------------------------------------------------------
Dilshad khan read and reread thecryptic message from the old man which have come to him from rub al khali somewhere in oman saudi boder by a relay of couriers and a crossing a number of countries in a rather complicated way and a number of changes of couriers themselves .The one page hand written note started its multi thousand kilometer jorney from seeb international airport in afternoon gul air flight to singapore chagi international where the rough paper envelope changed hand in the crampy smoking area overlooking the swanky tarmac and went on its way to tokyo narita airport in teh personnel bag of a japan airlines flight purser .From tokyo it changed hand again and was in the briefcase of an indonesian business man flying air india to Mumbai . At chtrapati shivaji the lettre changed hand again in the mens toilet of sahar international and for the last time changed hand into the cosmetic case of pakistan international airlined air hostess for the short two hour flight to karachi where the air hostess changed flight off duty and took the domestic flight to peswar which was her home town .In the final leg of the journey it was carried by trusted courier once again in a camel caravan to the outskirts of historic city of kandahar and now awaited action .

The journey of the action instructions essentially showed the careful and meticulous planning that go in any modern terrorist strike . While the final strike may still be carried out by fierce kohl lined warriors of islam who are blind to all reason and the human cost of thier action the face of terrorism all over the world has undergone a complete metamorphosis since 9/11 . With the worlds most techno savy military force arrayed against them without restraint the face of terror is all new . It can be the glamorous air hostess or the impecably dressed business man or the unkempt dirty jean clad youth sitting in the corner or the friendly neighbourhood businessman .

The target was and is united states and its allies on war on terror which incidentally includes india though india have been facing the brutalities of unreasoned terror much before 9/11 . 9/11 only crystalized the anti terror strategic relationship beyond our national borders like in afganistan .

Strangely though china was on indian side though not much publicised for thier own reasons china hated islamic fundamentalism as much as rest of the world and one of the main reasons did not obstruct indian deplyment in afganistan and did not encourage its long term ally pakistan to provoke indian armed forces into any major border conflict along the durrand lineon afgan pakistan border .

The old man not very far from the conflict zone knew all this and more .He knew the very existance of his organisation depends on sensational acts of conflict and terror and so despite terrible worldwide military and finacial pressure continued his " religious missions " across globe andmore particularly against indian and nato forces in afganistan though with progressively diminishing effectiveness .

But he could not stop - since he did not have any alternative .He knew and understod only the language of death and brutality of illeteracy and oppression -there was now one more determined force in afganistan standing upto his grand designs -the indian armed forces and he inteneded to make thier stay in his second home as costly as possible

WOW!!!!!!!!!
Such a relief to see you Back Shankar....

Dilshad khan was an unusal islamic militant.He was a well built man in his late forties with a long flowing sat and peeper beard. He lived in a small house on the outskirts of kandahar overlooking the dusty rolling low mountains that surround the city. Before the taliban movement started he owned a small garment shop in the city bazar . As the taliban movement formed and slowly gained momentum in the city he joined in and became one of its earliest members . At that point of time he had no enimity towards united states or any other western nation for that matter but personally did find their way some what arrogant and the their way of dressing particularly the female tourists moving around with substantial amount of exposed flesh some what disconcerting and vulgar .Things strted changing after that as the soviets withdrew from afganistan in 1989 badly mauled by the afgan mujahideen (and thier us supplied stingers) and consequent fall of communist govt in 1992 the whole administrative machinery simply collapsed. With serious infighting going on in kabul between various ethnic factions vying for control of the capital city rest of afganistan fell into mercy of the regional war and drug lords. Stopping cars and looting tourists became the norm as served as an additional source of income for the drug lords and thier scums .There was total anarchy in afganistan and particularly southern afganistan which centred around kandahar .

Talibans came into prominenence by restoring order in this anarchy and dilshad khan was then one of the favourites of central leadership who trusted him with most critical operations against warlords who refused to listen to their dictatats.

But in his personal life Dilshad khan was so very diffrent ,He liked to smoke strong indian cigerrets and had a great collection of books both activities not liked by then taliban leadership but they tolerated dilshad khan simply because of his organisational skill and ability to throw up unusal military plans as the talibans consolidated thier hold on southern afgan countryside and made thier tornado like advance towards kabul .Dilshad like to move thru the streets of kandahar for search of rare books on afgan history and culture .Dilshad had another activity not sanctioned by the talibans -photography and had a rare collection of war photographs taken by him him personally while fighting alongside present leadership against soviets

But then the stars of Dilshad took a a negative turn as he spoke out against the outsiders taking control of the taliban movement . Soon he found that he could not even meet the taliban chief mullah omar who he has faught side by side during soviet war -the outsiders were so much in control .His pride did not allow him to accpet a position under the outsiders and he quitely came back to his hometown of kandahar still loosely connected with the movement in an advisory role but no ,longer involved in in its day to day operation .

Things changed once again after 9/11 and enduring freedom . As he saw the savage bombing of all afgan cities and countless dead burried in the rubbles as the high flying b-52 s repeated thier saturation bombing making smaller rubble out of bigger rubble Dilshad khan was horrified at this indiscrimanate use of military power and contacted the old man somewhere in the desserts of oman and offred his services . It was accpeted .But till today he was not given charge of any major operation til today .

The letter he was holding was just a scrawl but the meaning was clear -he was to mount an operation which will tell us and its new found friends the cost of staying on in afganistan is still heavy

So far Dilshad have choreographed so called small standard acts of terror against outsiders as well as afgans who he thought were acting against afgan nationa interest . His area of operation was the kabul- kandahar road .

It is said any taliban defector if he is brave enough to travel the kandahar road is tempting the fate too much as intel network of dilshad khan was perhaps more effective than the govt intel agencies .

- An italian tourist travelling was shot dead
- four afgans working for a danish relief agency were killed
- two afgans working for afgan red crescent were killed
- four afgans working for USAID was ambushed and killed
- a pakistani enginner along with turkish engineer was shot dead
- and ofcourse a score of indian engineers and technicians were kidnapped and killed as the govt refused to give into the taliban pressure of withdrawing from afganistan .

-louis bergers transport helicopter was shot near kandahar air port
ressulting in death of australian pilot .


According to us intel agencies and corraborated by other agencies as well all these attacks are not isolated incidents but a carefully choregraphed scenario of violence designed to reconstruct the picture of enemy no 1 and its cohorts in themind of afgan population

Ironically the kabul -kandahar road was built with us money in the 1960 s a period when both us and soviet union was competing for extending their respective sphere of influenc in afganistan but was almost totally destryed during soviet occupation of afganistan. Travelling the 300 odd kilomters on this road was a nightmare by any defination.During enduring freedom the us army relaid the asphalt and later on indian engineering companies got involved in its reconstruction making it a four lane high way to international standard standards for economic as well as security reasons .

Unknown to Dilshad this newly completed 4 lane kabul -kandahar expressway as the indian engineers like to call it was destined to be come the most famous road in the world as dilshad khan would put his well thought out out plan in action and indian armed forces will have undertake one of the most difficult missions to save the credibility of war on terror and ofcourse many innocent lives if not all.

INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT -DELHI
-----------------------------------------------------------
The singapore airlines A-380 stood on the tarmac like a king dwarfing even the scores of 747 parked alongside . It was not on scheduled commercial routing but chartered by united nations for providing emmergency mediacl assistance to earthquake victims of iran . As the emergency medical supplies including a mobile operation theatre were being loaded up the multinational team of doctors and nurses were visiting the sights of delhi and agra . They were supposed to leave in 36 hrs when the indian mediacl team will join in .
The volunteer doctors and nurses have assembled the previous day in the national capital from countries as diverse as sweeden,us,japan,china ,france and ofcourse india for in response to a devastating earthquake measuring 6.4 on the richter scale in the north western part of iran.

IAF STATION- AGRA
-----------------------
Sq leader jaydeep was having his day off .Tomorrow he has one more scheduled sortie to kandahar ,flying in a replacement group and supplies and flying back next morning with the return group and a damaged bmp3.All in all a normal sunday and and a boring monday thought jaydeep as looked expectantly at the float of his fishing rod for any signs of a big fish taking the bait ,in the distance he could see the hazy outline of Taj ans the sepentine jamuna river . He broke a new packet of charms and lit one as the golden sun set down on its downward spiral over the minars of empresses tomb .

PAF BASE -PESWAR
-------------------------
f/l asgar loked at the hand delivered note from across the border .It was from his unknown contact in afganistan . The instructions were precise detailing the expected flight plan and schedule of indian transporter carrying some high level army officials and critical spares to kandahar next day and what he should do as per his commitments to the organisation .

He knew once he has done what has to be done ,returning to PAF or pakistan will be almost impossible and he planned to escape across the border to iran with his spanking new falcon block 52 .He was sure iranian airforce would welcome him with open arms and the financial rewards that have been promised will be more than adequate to cover his expenses for the rest of life .

KANDAHAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT -AFGANISTAN
--------------------------------------------------------------
Squadron leader Ranjita saxena looked at the rolling dust hills that surround the airport and which happened to be her her fiist posting after being promoted to squadron leader as she eased on the throttle of her mirage 2000 and lined upfor her final approach . Along with much delayed promotion has come the additional responsibility too .She has been put in command of the green horns manning the hawl squadron based in kandahar as part of indian quick reponse team .1000 ft behind and 5 degree to port was her wingman f/l bhisma bhargav on his first overseas tour of duty .

-kandahar tower - red eye flight - request permision for full stop landing
- red eye flight -tower - fly straight in - -runway 21 left - over

Ranjita glanced at the artificial horizon as she pushed the stick forward increasing the rate of descent to nearly 2000 ft/min at the same time deployed the air brakes till the air speed droped to 240 knots then retracted the air brakes quickly and moved out the flaps to approach setting of 15 degree as the 10000 ft main rinway 21 came into view .

- red eye flight -tower -you are cleared to land -runway 21 left
-cleared to land runway 21 left ,repeated ranjita as she pushed up the throttle one notch and qucickly followed it by lowering the undercarriage lever . The mirage definitely does not like flying with wheels out as she felt the familiar rumble when the wheels hit the slipstream and the aircraft buckled a bit . The dusty grounds rushed past ,air speed 180 knots ,altitude 500 ft -ranjita moved the flaps to landing configuration 35 degreeand at the same time her left hand pushed up the throttle two more notches as the air speed tended to drop sharply - altitude 50 ft and she crossed the runway threshold - she pulled the nose of sleek aircraft wee bit and cut the power smoothly flairing to perfect touch down on the runway with just a wisp of smoke .

-red eye lead - tower -clear runway when able we have couple of inbounds lined up -please

Squadron leader ranjita grimaced within her oxygen mask as she deployed the air brakes and gently put pressure on the brakes as the flashed past first of the runway turn offs ,speed down to 60 knots -40-20-10 and the the second last of the turn offs came into view as she gracefully turned of the runway and started her lazy taxi run to to the IAF area of the airport . On the runway she could see her wingman touching down with a hard bump and made a mental note to give him a piece of her mind in the debrief room ,