Operation ‘Fox-Hunt’ (23 page)

The DG-ISI was dressed in uniform and looked as fresh as a daisy. “How does he manage that?” Hasan thought to himself as he was shown into the living room by a bodyguard. “Well, you have news of Operation Shamshir for me?”

16

Indo-Bangladesh border zone: 0330 hours

T
enzig and his men boarded the chopper as soon as the DG-Security’s order came through. He had been prepared for this eventuality. The five scouts were to lay down an ambush from a position of relative advantage and pin down the militants. One of the Dhruvs hovering up there was a new Rudra variant armed with a 20 mm cannon and rockets. The Rudra could step in and help contain the terrorists from breaking out and attacking the scouts pinning them down. Its infrared sight ensured that the pilots could see well in the dark. All members of the SG team were wearing electronic markers which highlighted them to the gunship crew and reduced chances of a friendly fire incident. The five scouts included a sniper and a specialist in air fire control. As a team they had capabilities to hold off a force as large as the one they were tracking right now. Tenzig spoke to the scout leader as they chose the intercept point. The scouts would intercept the terrorists in five minutes. The flying time to Drop Zone (DZ) was 12 minutes. And then a fast hike of five minutes would bring them to the intercept point. So for a period of twenty minutes, the scouts would be on their own. Tenzig suggested that within five minutes of the intercept, the scout leader should call in the first air strike; that would buy
them some time until the chopper circled over the DZ. The DZ was a small clearing so the chopper would not land. Tenzig’s men would be slithering down from the chopper. So for the 60-odd seconds that they were dropping down, the scouts would have no air cover. The two choppers took off one after the other. The BSF unit in charge of the zone closed in from behind and sealed off the escape route.

Hamza realised the presence of an opposing force when a rifle shot cracked in the dead of night. One of the HUJI militants went down immediately. The scouts had chosen the ambush spot well. It was a clearing through which Hamza’s men had to pass to avoid a stream. They were completely exposed. Both Hamza and the supremely trained Aameer dived for cover. The entire arc resounded with automatic gunfire. The Tavor rounds of the SG scouts slashed through Hamza’s team. Within seconds the HUJI militants and Hamza’s men answered with their own weapons. Hamza checked his casualties and tried to create a defensive position. He realised immediately that the force facing him was not big.

“Aameer, check out our losses and positions. I want to mount a rearguard action.” Aameer’s experienced eye took only a few seconds to report back.

“We have lost two men in total; among our boys we have lost Rehman. Mehboob is lying on the ground. I think he is alive but Basharat is certainly dead. The men are bunched up along the right flank. The enemy…” He was cut short as a thup-thup sound of a chopper coming in low filled the sky. Cannon and rocket fire raked the clearing. The sky resounded with loud explosions as a round of rockets hit the ground. Hamza pulled the five men back to the treeline as the chopper veered away. The enemy was lined up 100 or so metres away in the opposite treeline. As he inspected the line, he realised that there was a
buzzing in his pocket. Despite the December chill in the air, Hamza was sweating. The satellite phone was ringing. He pressed the receive button.

“Abort operation. Abort operation,” a small voice squeaked from the other end. Hamza screamed into the handset,

“You fucking chairborne penguin…it’s too late, the operation is destroyed. We have been ambushed…. You tell me what we should do.”

Again he heard the roar of rockets as the Rudra overhead returned. Hamza and his men kept their heads down to escape the rockets and the ratatat of the cannon. In between they found sniper bullets and Tavor 5.56 rounds thumping into the trees around them.

Half a kilometre away, the main force had landed and was marching in from the enemy’s flanks. Around a kilometre behind the BSF QRTs closed in rapidly. Hamza’s men realised that the ferocity of fire from the enemy facing them had increased in number. The hovering chopper was joined by another one. Hamza grasped the significance of the second chopper and was about to ask Aameer to check out the flanks when another force broke through on their flanks.

Tenzig’s men could see muzzle flashes as the terrorists exchanged fire with the scouts. As they moved their Tavor rifle settings to ‘fire’ from ‘safe’, Tenzig yelled out the SFF war cry, “Ki Ki So So Lhargyalo (Victory to God).”

They charged from the flanks, taking the enemy by complete surprise. In the next few minutes, all fire was suppressed. Tenzig radioed the choppers circling above to switch on their powerful searchlight. The dozen men on the ground were all hit. Only the big man and the group leader were alive. The medic checked them.

“These two are alive, but the big man needs medical attention,” he pointed to Aameer. Hamza had broken his right
arm and had a flesh wound. He was going to live. Tenzig’s orders did not specify taking prisoners but he could not shoot men in cold blood. After his men had ensured that the injured men were completely unarmed, he ordered medics to treat the two Pakistanis. As his men secured the parameter, Tenzig spoke to the control room.

“We have twelve men here, two survivors, confirm numbers.” The DG-Security came on line and congratulated him and his men. He confirmed that there were only twelve men in the party. Tenzig’s men photographed and marked the bodies and mailed the pictures to the HQ.

The choppers had gone back to refuel and returned in 30 minutes by which time the BSF teams had reached the spot and cleared the new Landing Zone (LZ) and set-up a parameter security. The choppers took the wounded and the bodies. Tenzig and his men trekked along with BSF men to the roadhead for a drive back to the forward operating base.

Kandivali, Mumbai: 0330 hours

Tariq was alone, scared and he didn’t want to die. But he could not imagine being captured and put on display; a caged animal like Ajmal Kasab. The flames from the cylinder explosion were dying down. He was drenched in water from the fire sprinklers and the hosing down from the fire engines the Indians had bought in. He looked at his rifle; he had only one spare magazine. And there was one grenade. Izaz’s rifle was empty and Musheef’s seemed damaged. He replaced his old magazine with a fresh one. For the last time, remembered his God and his family, and charged to the exit door.

As soon as he pushed the staircase door and started firing, the commandos who had moved down a flight below to avoid exactly this sort of attack opened up with their MP5s and M4s.
A well placed burst bought Tariq tumbling down. A commando saw the grenade in his hand and warned everyone to stay back. In his hurry, Tariq had forgotten to arm the grenade.

About a kilometre away, Adil had been cornered near a street kiosk. He lit a cigarette and waited. The F1 men held their fire as two teams flanked him and an armoured vehicle prepared to charge his position.

After breaking through the checkpoint, Adil had been fired upon by a team down the road. His car had been destroyed and he had a flesh wound from a bullet. He had shot and wounded another trooper before he had limped to a corner where he now awaited the final assault. His AKSU had only a magazine left and his last grenade was in his hands. He saw a movement in the shadows around 100 metres away and loosed off a few rounds. As if out of nowhere, an armoured car roared down the street and Adil fired his last magazine towards it. The 5.56 mm bullets just bounced off. A split-second before he could throw a grenade, bullets from the armoured car’s 7.62 mm machine gun tore into his upper body. He didn’t feel a thing as his body hit the ground.

Shezad and Jameel had lowered themselves into the lift car in the basement. Jameel had bought his homemade ‘crowbar’ with him. But Shezad didn’t want to hurry; he wanted to be sure that no one was in the earshot when he opened the door. He didn’t fancy a bullet when he walked out of a narrow opening.

The firing had stopped on the top floor and the F1 confirmed the death of the terrorist outside. Sukhjeet and Thapa decided to complete a floor by floor search for any surviving militants or booby traps. He was sure that all the terrorists were dead, but didn’t want to take any chances. A troop from SRG cordoned off the ground floor while the SAG helicopter landed another troop on the roof. They SAG came in from above, while the SRG went in from below, floor by floor.

Shezad cocked his AK, and he and Jameel pried open the lifts door. The lift opened into a secluded area of the basement. There were parked cars around. Keeping out of each other’s line of fire both started walking towards an exit, using shadows as cover.

Outside, Sanjay decided to take a smoke break. Taking his packets of cigarettes, he moved towards an opening near the underground car park. Two troopers were standing at the exit. He casually began to chat with them. The tension had reduced in the operation area. A young CRPF assistant commandant on deputation to rangers joined him for a smoke. He was a DAGO (Direct Entry Gazetted officer), a non IPS. A counter assault specialist, he was the troop commander of Rangers cordoning off the ground floor. As they walked away from basement entrance, chatting, towards the command post, a long burst of fire exploded into the night behind them.

Shezad could see two men at the entrance. He was wondering what to do next when Jameel itching for a fight and taut with tension, loosed of a burst from his AK. Recovering from his surprise, Shezad added his burst towards the men at the entrance and took cover.

In an instant, the first Ranger dropped to the ground, hit and bleeding. The second trooper immediately returned fire and Jameel ducked behind a car.

Shezad had moved ahead and took cover behind a pillar and his bullet found the second trooper whose attention and fire was directed at Jameel.

Sanjay threw away his fag and pulled up his M4 carbine and both ran back to the entrance. The commando called for backup on his shoulder radio. Sanjay fired a long burst as the Ranger officer pulled the wounded commandos away from the line of fire.

Sanjay shouted into the radio “Ask someone to switch the lights in the basement!” Already he could hear the boots of the other troops as they came to assist him.

As Shezad fired another burst, the lights in the basement came on. Sanjay immediately recognised the ‘Fox’.

“Major Shezad, it’s over. All your men are dead and even as we speak, the commandos are closing in. You don’t have a play left so you have no choice left but to surrender.”

Shezad’s only answer was a burst of fire from his AK, and he scurried across to a safer spot behind another car. Both Sanjay and the commando responded with a short burst each.

Jameel, who had taken cover behind a car near the entrance, had now crawled under it. Realising that the two newcomers hadn’t seen him yet, he decided to wait and take his opportunity later.

“Major, it’s over, throw down your weapon. This is your last chance. You survived our last meeting to fight again. I don’t feel it right to allow you the same privilege once more.” Sanjay called out again. This time the Fox didn’t fire back.

“Who are you?” he called back. Sanjay could hear the thump of combat boots on concrete as more commandos arrived.

“Remember the attack at Kussum substation in Gwadar, Major? I was at the other end of that machine gun.” To Sanjay’s and the commando’s surprise, Shezad burst into laughter.

“Privilege? I wiped out your men! Or did you forget that?” He shouted back and then let loose a long volley from his AK. The bullets thudded harmlessly into the concrete. Sanjay crouched low and gestured to the troop of commandos who had just arrived at the scene. They handed him two stun grenades. Sanjay threw the grenades in quick succession at Shezad’s position and took cover as the SAG took over the fire fight. The commandos prepared to charge Shezad’s position. Seeing his boss had been tagged,
Jameel broke his cover and opened fire at the commandos from their flank. The commandos moved to neutralise the immediate danger. Using the confusion as the cover, Shezad moved out of his position deeper into the basement. Sanjay, who had stepped back to allow the commandos to take action, saw the move and fired a volley of shots at Shezad as he moved between cars and pillars. As Shezad moved deeper into the basement, he noticed that the floor had markings, “Hell, parking slots . . . maybe there is still a chance,” he said to himself and let loose another volley at the commandos positin before moving deeper in. Sanjay, on an instinct decided to follow him into the cavernous space. He motioned to the commando next to him and moved in. Seeing that Sanjay had moved ahead, commandos stopped firing in Shezad’s direction and turned their attention to neutralising Jameel who was now pinned behind another pillar. They had no fear of Shezad disappearing into the bowels of the basement; another team had sealed the route from behind and awaited anyone who tried to break through in that direction.

Seeing that the fire had stopped from Shezad’s position, Sanjay cautiously moved forward.