Operation ‘Fox-Hunt’ (24 page)

Shezad kept moving back, until a glint of metal and a hurried movement in the distance made him realise that there was a welcoming party waiting. Frantically, he looked at the numbers on the floor. And then he saw it: Parked near a wall, brilliantly black, was a parked Scorpio Jeep. He moved through the shadows and reached it. “The Fox has literally been run into the ground, but not beaten yet,” Shezad thought to himself and smiled as he opened the door of the Scorpio. The beep beep of opening door was lost in the continuous din of fire and the din of alarms due to explosions in other parked cars in basement.

The sound of an engine revving up alerted Sanjay, but he didn’t connect it with the Fox. Then, out of the smoke and
din, a black shape of the Scorpio broke through at high speed. Instinctively Sanjay fired a bust at the vehicle bearing down at him. The vehicle moved on almost unscathed. The pillars and other parked vehicles slowed the Scorpio down. Sanjay spoke into his radio to alert the teams at both the entrances.

The smoke from the firing in the basement and the multiple pillars restricted Shezad’s view of the action at Jameel’s position.

Knowing that Jameel was alone, and under heavy fire, Shezad turned the Jeep towards the last position he had seen Jameel at. They might as well give the Indians a bloody nose together. The vehicle was slightly sluggish due to its armour, but afforded him relatively better speed and protection. He thanked God for Amin’s bullet proof SUV.

At the entrances, the commandos instructed for an armoured jeep to be bought to the entrance to block the runaway vehicle from escaping out of the parking.

Sanjay followed the SUV at a distance, gamely trying to keep up. For a moment it seemed to him that the SUV had slowed, going down on one knee, he loosed off a volley at the vehicle. At that particular moment, Shezad had been trying to negotiate a sharp bend in the parking and the burst shredded the tyres, the heavy armour and the sharp turning toppled the SUV over.

As the jeep crashed, on its side, Shezad, stunned but unhurt, climbed out with his AK. He was cornered, but had the cover of the toppled SUV. As the SUV toppled, Sanjay had lost sight of the cab; he moved as fast as he could towards the damaged vehicle. There was very little light in that part of the basement.

Sanjay moved cautiously towards the SUV, taking cover of the pillars. At the SUV, Shezad reloaded his rifle and moved away from the vehicle. He could smell diesel and didn’t fancy being near the vehicle if somebody shooting at it hit the gas tank, which
was now exposed as the vehicle lay on its side. He sauntered away from the wreck taking cover of shadows and pillars.

The commandos at the entrance saw the SUV topple over and moved forward, the radio transmission from Sanjay had confirmed that no one had yet walked away from the vehicle. As they slowly reached near the vehicle, one of the commandos fired a precautionary bust and it hit the leaking gas tank, the vehicle exploded in a ball of fire.

The explosion knocked out the lights in the basement and started a fire. Shezad had moved out of range but a piece of debris had hit his shoulder with a force. The commandos at the other end had quickly taken cover and asked for fire control support.

“No one can escape that,” thought Sanjay to himself, “Unless no one was there when the explosion happened.” Cautiously, he moved from pillar to pillar, taking cover and ensuring that he stayed out of the commando’s line of fire.

Shezad had been moving away from the wreck using the similar pillars, his one arm throbbing with pain.

Almost simultaneously, the two enemies negotiated the same pillar from opposite sides, and as they collided with force, the M4 carbine and the AK47 clattered to the ground. In an instant, the two men were locked in a ferocious hand to hand combat. Shezad landed the first punch. As the two men grappled, Sanjay grabbed Shezad’s wounded arm and twisted it before kicking him in the shin. With a howl of pain, Shezad punched Sanjay in his midriff and applying superhuman effort, pushed Sanjay off. As Sanjay staggered backwards, Shezad went on one knee to pick up his rifle. He had just got it on his hand on it when a metallic click stopped him in his tracks.

“Step away from the AK and turn around slowly, Major, I won’t hesitate to shoot.” Sanjay hissed as he pointed a Beretta at his opponent.

As he had staggered back, he had pulled it out of the holster.

“Turn around, Major!” he said as Shezad stood with his back to him.

In a moment Shezad knew it was over. With a roar “
Pakistanpainabad
!” he turned around and charged at Sanjay.

Two shots rang out. Shezad dropped to the ground.

The commandos at the other end had closed in hearing the shots.

“Are you okay?” an SAG officer asked Sanjay as other troopers stood over Shezad’s body. He had died before he hit the ground.

“You got him clean as a whistle, in between his eyes,” the commando told Sanjay.

The commandos quickly moved forward. The shots had stopped at the other end too, Jameel’s battle was over. As his ammunition ran out, he charged at the commandos and was bought down.

After the fire fight, the basement was evacuated while the fire fighters and explosives experts checked both bodies for booby traps.

Ankush and Nair walked in and identified Shezad’s body. The medics took DNA samples, later to be checked with DNA samples of his brother and mother being acquired by the US homeland security.

As the bodies were being moved to an ambulance, Sanjay came over to see the enemy he had just vanquished. He didn’t feel any hatred but a deep professional satisfaction at having done his job.

Sanjay called Secretary-R, “Sir, Foxhunt complete and mission accomplished. We are moving out.”

Secretary-R opened his pack of cigarettes and offered one to Nambiar.

“I want you to send them a message. Interrogate that sonofabitch we caught alive. I am going to have breakfast with the Queen and the PM. Congrats again.” He smiled as he threw away the butt.

Mumbai, 16 December: 0600 hours

The C130 with the SAG took off as the sun rose in the east. The men were dead tired and they were carrying back the body of a fallen comrade. Somehow that doused all celebrations. The entire operation had cost the country four dead men. There were seven wounded too.

Sanjay sat in the corner tapping away at his laptop, completing his report. He could not sleep on the noisy contraption. Someone passed around a thermos of sweet tea. Sanjay saved his file and took the offered tea. He looked across at the commandos as they were disassembling their weapons. Sukhjeet was cleaning his rifle. He had the most difficult job of them all. He had to tell a family that a loved one had died under his command. Others were playing cards or chatting. Some had already started to repack their equipment.

Sanjay looked out of the window and could see the rising sun on the horizon. The captain’s voice boomed on the loudspeaker.

“Thank you for flying Air Force. This is your captain speaking. We are passing Ahmedabad and our ETA Delhi at 0800 hours. Please enjoy the flight and ask the ‘stewardess’ to serve you breakfast.”

The ‘stewardess’ was a hefty Jat warrant officer who was also the payload chief. No one in the flight would dare ask him for refreshments. Despite the situation, Sanjay found himself smiling.

17

New Delhi-Dhaka-Islamabad, 16 and 17 December: 1400 hours

A
t North Block, the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, the American ambassador came along with his military attaché and his CIA station chief. The Foreign Secretary and a Brigadier were waiting. A presentation was made and the American ambassador took a thick folder and thanked the Foreign Secretary. The CIA man heard the whole thing. The Chevrolet Suburban drove back towards the US embassy passing the India Gate and the Indian Parliament. The American ambassador conferred with his two companions and shook his head. He would leave for Washington today itself. The evidence was irrefutable.

In Dhaka, an Indian Air Force Embraer jet taxied to an isolated hangar. The agents from Directorate-General of National Security Intelligence (NSI), the primary secret service organisation of Bangladesh, took charge of the coffin which was rolled out. The RAW officer who had travelled with the body was escorted into a car which drove to a nearby military cantonment. He could see Liberation Day festivities all along the way. He sat down with a senior army General, the NSI agent on case, and the commander of the SWADS. For the next 30
minutes, he shared map coordinates and photographs. One of the photographs showed Colonel Haider Ali, ISI station head at Dhaka, shaking hands and smiling with Mehboob. The man in the background was Ali’s bodyguard, Aameer. There were other photographs and information.

“We will not take any credit for the death of this animal. But we need you to take necessary actions against the individual we have pointed out.”

The NSI agent shook hands with the RAW officer and promised action. The RAW officer went back to the refuelled jet and they left for Delhi.

In Islamabad, the COAS and DG ISI had seen the action on the Indian news channels and were waiting eagerly for the Indian spokesmen to present something to the waiting journalists. There was only a terse statement:

“A successful anti-terrorist operation conducted by the central and state security forces has led to the elimination of a terror cell in Mumbai. The Prime Minister sends his condolences to the families of martyrs and joins the country as it mourns their loss. The terrorists belonged to an unidentified organisation. We will never allow these criminals to destroy our integrity.” The COAS stared at the DG ISI. The DG ISI could only nod his head sideways in amazement, “They must know… they will know in a couple of days…don’t worry, boss.”

In Pune, a farmhouse was raided near the Mulshi dam leading to the arrest of a caretaker and the recovery of sophisticated firearms.

Dhaka, Islamabad, 17 December

Dhaka-based
The Daily Star
ran a report about a raid on a farmhouse by the elite SWADS along with the local police leading to the death of a dreaded terrorist Mehboob Aslam. Five
other terrorists were captured and two were wounded in the exchange of fire. In a related development, a legislator of Jammat had been arrested in connection with the assassination attempt on the President the year before.

In an unconnected incident, there was a report that the cultural attaché at the Pakistan embassy was run over as he crossed the road after buying a pack of cigarettes from a kiosk across his home late at night; the driver had not been arrested. Police has booked a case against unknown persons.

In Islamabad, the American ambassador requested a meeting with the special assistant to the President. The special assistant was requested to come to the embassy. The special assistant was a blood relative of the President and had only one loyalty, his boss. He was presented with the evidence and explained India’s stand on the issue. A letter from the US President supporting democracy in Pakistan and reduction of military aid was also presented to the aide. He was explained the entire context of the planned attack. The aide promised that action would be taken.

New Year morning, New Delhi

The NSA and the Secretary-R were sitting in the Gymkhana club having beers. The round of golf had pleased the NSA.

Secretary-R looked up from the report, “The interrogation of that Hamza fellow has thrown up a few names. We have taken out their files.” He passed two files across to the NSA.

“Colonel Khan and Brigadier Hasan Mehroon. Both were involved in earlier attacks on our interests in India and Afghanistan. Hamza believes that they were a part of the 26/11 attack as well, along with Major Shezad Khan.”

The NSA finished his drink and poured himself another beer, “Well, take care of them. And this Hamza chap, what do you intend to do with him and Aameer?”

“Nothing, for now they are singing like canaries and it will take us months to completely interrogate them. Later we can exchange them with our people if the chance comes up.”

The NSA nodded, “In your game it always does … take care of the loose ends,” and they went back to their drinks and the discussion of which civil servant was backing which politician.

In Pakistan, the President met the DGMO in a secret meeting and assured him that he was the next COAS.

Islamabad, Pakistan, Three weeks later

Brigadier Hasan kissed his daughter and wife and walked out to the waiting Toyota SUV. His bodyguard was alert and checking the street. He looked in and saw Colonel Khan inside. They were leaving for Cherat. A new batch of SSG commandos was passing out and they were going to select a couple of men for the SS division. Khan had his number one uniform on and was wearing new wrap-around shades. Hasan found them ridiculous but did not comment. As the SUV drove out of the defence colony and took the road to the airport, Hasan looked at his watch and relaxed. They had plenty of time. As they approached a traffic light, a taxi edged in and came into their lane. A huge explosion echoed across ten blocks as the taxi exploded in a fireball.