Operation ‘Fox-Hunt’ (16 page)

The NSA addressed the meeting, “I have already informed the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Defence Minister regarding the situation. The PM is keen that we neutralise the threat within our border and not allow the Pakistani establishment to hoodwink both their own people and the US by using our aggressive stance as a fig leaf.”

“The Home Minister has issued the necessary orders to the NSG to be on standby, if and when required. As soon as we have actionable intelligence, the state government of the concerned state will be involved to take the necessary action. So please concentrate on identifying the location of both the teams. Mr Sanjay Khanna will assume complete command of the operation from this moment onwards. Mr Dubey will liaison with the Home Secretary at the MHA. The IB and Military will assist RAW on need basis, including use of IB and MI assets. From the details sent to me, I understand that the Pakistani officer fancies himself to be a fox … I suggest that you people snarl the fox and quickly. Secretary-R will take the case forward.” With that the NSA left the room.

Colonel Thakur realised that his casual noting about Shezad’s infatuation with Rommel at the end of his report had been noticed.

Following the conference, Secretary-R spoke to the Director MI and IB. Both agreed that the executive officers working on the case at their end would quickly join a joint team headed by
RAW for the remainder of the operation. The service chiefs had already been briefed and had agreed post a call from the Defence Secretary.

Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) HQ, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, 12 December

Immediately after the meeting, Secretary-R and Sanjay drove down to the RAW office on Lodhi Road. In the car Secretary-R called the Director General (DG)-Security and Joint Director Technical section.

Once in the office, they were joined by both the RAW officers, Adnan and one of the Military Intelligence officers. Secretary-R explained the situation to the two new participants in the meeting. Sanjay then took over the briefing.

“It is imperative that we identify and locate the two teams at the earliest. Also the target needs to be identified so as to activate the counter-assault teams. Our best bet is this Major Shezad; we have two men with us who have seen him face to face. We also have some pictures of the team which was in Sargodha. But catching them will be more difficult.”

Rathore interjected, “It may be a backup team, and it may never have entered India.”

“True,” replied Sanjay. “But we can’t be sure. They may have entered or will enter from some other points, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh or, for that matter, even Kashmir.”

Adnan spoke up, “I have already requested immediate activation of assets in all sorts of underworld and motley of rebel groups to see if something comes up. I will be following up on that post this meeting.”

“That’s good. We also need to see what comes up on intelligence networks of the local police. Adnan, you need to
have a word with the Director Generals of Police; the Home Secretary will speak to the local police too and sensitise them on the urgency. But we need a break and quickly. Also please share all your files with Sanjay so that he has a view on the activities already closed,” Secretary-R said.

Sanjay then briefed the two RAW Directors on his expectations from their departments. The meeting ended with the agreement that all monitoring of reports would be done from the conference room in RAW office. All of them would now camp there until the ‘Operation Fox-Hunt ended. They were given a room each on the top floor of the building so they could work independently and have a small liaison staff from their departments present on the premises.

The first piece of good news came from a diplomat posted in the UN secretariat in New York. The NIA had enquired if the phone numbers to which calls were made from the UN mission in Congo a year-and-a-half back could be isolated and identified. The answer had come; an officer from the MEA on assignment with the UN Peacekeeping Force Headquarters had access to all reimbursements to field units. All reimbursements were against actual bills, including satellite link bills by the UAE-based company Thuraya. The soft copy of bills listed every number called using the link from the UN Congo unit and was available for each month. The diplomat mailed the bills of the relevant month to the RAW attaché in the Indian embassy. He forwarded them through the station chief of RAW at the Indian embassy in Washington DC, who had raised the query. After analysing the lists of phone numbers for most of the day, the technical analysts was able to identify two numbers, both in the United States. The information was passed on to Sanjay, who quickly called Secretary-R and informed him that he would need some help from the Americans if they were to identify the numbers quickly.
Secretary-R contacted the MEA and explained the issue to the Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Secretary informed his minister and contacted the State Department in Washington where he spoke quickly to the Under Secretary of State for South Asia and was promised assistance.

Richard ‘Dick’ Roberts, the station chief at the US embassy in New Delhi took Sanjay’s call. He had been advised by his boss from the CIA headquarters in Langley to give full assistance to the Indians. He was not surprised. The CIA shared excellent relations with RAW over the last few years following 9/11. It was the CIA which had confirmed the involvement of the Pakistani ISI in the Mumbai attacks of 26/11 and RAW had over the years provided cooperation in Afghan conflict in terms of assets and its vast knowledge of dealing with the Northern Alliance (NA). Dick also had been one of the first CIA officers to have warned Langley about Pakistan’s double dealings back in his days in the US embassy in Islamabad as a deputy station chief. He had been instrumental in getting the contractor, Raymond Davis freed from captivity by arranging a ransom through the ISI. He had presented the Janus-faced agency with evidence that Davis had produced proof of LET getting arms from the ISI directly. This had forced the Pakistani Army to swallow the insult of having to pay the ransom themselves and free the contractor. It was even more humiliating as the Pakistan Army had itself whipped the local population into frenzy to put pressure on the US. For his actions in Pakistan, Roberts had been promoted to the post of a station chief and sent to India. He knew Sanjay and had met him a couple of times at official engagements. Sanjay gave a brief background of the situation and then shared the two phone numbers with him. Dick promised to revert within a few hours.

“Okay, the two numbers are registered with the same guy, Mustafa Khan. He is a doctor and is not known to have any
suspicious linkages. He is a green card holder and has no suspicious records. The fact that he visits Pakistan regularly is the only thing that stands out. I am mailing you the details right now. I hope it helps. We have also got a surveillance team on him as a precaution, and in case you require having him picked up. That will require your people to speak to guys at foggy bottoms to do that.”

He was referring to the State Department office as it is known internally. “One more thing. We checked his phone records, and over the last week, he has been getting calls from a number in India regularly, like clockwork at about 1800 hours India time. The number is 9890127356.” Sanjay could not believe his luck as he noted the number on a dairy. He cheerfully thanked him and told him that he may call again.

“You owe me a round of golf, Sanjay,” Dick signed off.

Sanjay quickly called a member of his staff and gave him the number given by Dick. “Check out whose number it is. And pick this chap up and bring him in.” Sanjay had already checked the name of the doctor, it matched the one given by Colonel Thakur on the personnel file MI had put together on the Fox. The field officer went to the Technical division to find the right person to carry out his instructions.

Sanjay was going through the reports filed in the last few days by his officers in the neighbouring country when the officer in-charge of the Bangladesh desk, Vishal Yadav, walked in with a big grin. “We may have something; our agent in Dhaka has filed this report three days back. The ISI station chief, Haider Ali, had gone out of station for a day. It seems he drove down with his bodyguard, an ex-SF muscle to Khulna. A shadow team had followed them to Khulna city. These guys drove across the city and then disappeared into one of the farmhouses. We know that the ISI station chief does not travel out of Dhaka for trivial
matters. Our agent guessed that it was something important. So even though Haider Ali returned without his man on Friday, the agent and a backup team from Dhaka hung around to make enquires. And the report is very interesting.”

Sanjay read the report and smiled, “Vishal, call the others in; we need to share this. We may just have got something. Two pieces of good news in one go!”

Sanjay walked in briskly. He quickly shared the information regarding the phone number from the CIA. “But I think Vishal has something more important to share.” Sanjay gestured to Vishal to present his findings.

Vishal switched on the projector and briefed the team.

“On the 5 of December our boys in Dhaka followed a car with the ISI station chief to Khulna. His name is Colonel Haider Ali,” Vishal clicked the mouse a couple of times to show close-up pictures of the station chief. They had been taken from a long-range telephoto lens and showed a fit, slim officer in his late thirties.

“The car dropped off the station chief and his bodyguard to one of the many farmhouses outside the city.” He pointed to the satellite photo of the farmhouse on the screen; it could be clearly seen along with its assorted houses and a paddy field.

“The sheds in the corner are garages with three SUVs and a small Chinese three-tonner truck. Our agents decided to investigate why an ISI station chief would travel to a remote location, and more importantly, leave his bodyguard behind.”

The screen now showed the bodyguard standing by the embassy SUV. The man was smoking a cigarette and his swarthy arms were clearly visible. Also clearly visible was a holster with a firearm. “The farmhouse is owned by a right-wing political leader of the Jamat-e-Islami party. He is known for being close to HUJI
and uses their cadres as thugs during elections.” A photograph of an elderly man wearing a skullcap surrounded by men who looked like bodyguards filled the screen.

“The vehicles are registered in the names of various people; we have traced them to some party members of the Jammat. Today, at dawn, an agent hid himself in the hillock overlooking the farmhouse, armed with a long-range telephoto lens and a Nikon camera. He was able to take these pictures and mail them to us.” The screen showed a team of five men running in formation. The screen changed to close-ups of the men; the first was of the bodyguard, the second one drew a collective gasp from the group.

Before anyone could articulate their thoughts, Vishal changed the screen again. There were two pictures side by side, one had come from Bangladesh this morning, and they showed a young man running for fitness, his face contorted from the effort of running while the other was of young man withdrawing money from an ATM. He looked bored and was staring at the screen in front of him; both photos were of the same man. His name was there on the picture from the ATM; Afaq Khan.

Verma slammed his fist on the table, “We have the bastards.” Sanjay looked up, apparently pleased.

“Let’s get them.” exclaimed Colonel Thakur.

Sanjay shook his head in disagreement, “Colonel, I understand your sentiment, but we should not hurry. Remember the other group is at large in India. If we swoop down on the group in Bangladesh now, they will be forewarned and might activate their plan early or switch to something else. I will contact the ARC to earmark live satellite feed from the compound. Also Vishal, I think you should have a full-fledged team to keep surveillance on the guest house.” Vishal nodded in agreement, “Vishal has something more to share.”

“We checked with IB units on this side of the border and they have found out that a well-known scout, someone who takes money to get people across the border has disappeared from his normal haunts. It seems he had been boasting about a big contract at a local bar. We believe that these might be the characters he will be bringing across. We also found that he has booked a small truck for the night of 14 December from a local rental.”

“So let’s catch them on our side of the border. I know just the force for this operation,” Sanjay exclaimed as he looked across the table at the DG-Security. The DG-Security cleared his throat and explained, “We will send across a Special Group team of the SFF to the border. They will camp in the jungle and scoop these fellows out.”

After a drubbing at the hands of the Chinese in 1962, the Indian government ordered the raising of a Special Forces unit and specialised mountain-ready force mainly composed of Tibetan refugee fighters. Initially five thousand men, mostly Khampas were recruited at its new Mountain Training Facility at Chakrata, Dehradun.

This unit was designated as the SFF, and was mainly used for intelligence gathering and commando operations along the Tibetan border. Their initial training was conducted by the CIA and the Indian IB. Later, the SFF, along with the fraternal ARC converted into a fully airborne-qualified unit.

SFF is commanded by an Inspector General who works under the supervision of DG-Security-RAW, who in turn reports directly to the Director of RAW. The ARC and SFF both use the nearby Chakrata airbase. As relations with China improved, the force began to act as the private army of the RAW. The force had taken part with distinction in the Bangladesh war, Kargil, operations against militants in Punjab and many other covert and
overt actions. It was also the unit that supplied bodyguards to the newly elected Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi after his mother’s assassination. Part of this unit is a section called the SG; an elite force trained specifically as a commando unit. Its elements had been trained in Israel and many believed it was the parent force of the NSG or Black Cat commandos. Unlike the rest of SFF, this unit has Tibetan as well as Gorkha and Indian troops. It was a team from this force that the DG-Security was now proposing to move to the Bangladesh border for capturing the terrorist unit when it crossed into India.