Two months ago…
It was a remote area in the forests of Poonch in Jammu & Kashmir. A team of specially trained forces were moving forward in a formation. This team was led by a woman officer who was the best in combat and tactical warfare.
Suddenly she waived everyone to stop and lie low as she herself crouched. The group obeyed her command and crouched low waiting for her instructions…
“Capt. Nair, give me your sniper…” she grabbed the sniper from his hand and started scanning the area in front of her through telescope of that sniper gun. She made two scans around 135 degrees and stopped scanning at a point. She looked at the silencer on the nozzle and satisfied that the gun’s noise will be suppressed to a minimum, she pulled at the trigger.
Her aim was unerring and the bullet hit the target – a terrorist who was keeping a watch; seated on a high branch of a tree. She wrinkled her nose in anticipation of the body of that terrorist falling down with a thud, but strap of his bullets caught in a branch stopped him from falling down and his still body hung on the branch of the tree.
She quickly aimed at another location on another tree and fired the bullet killing him instantly and he fell down the tree with a thud. She waived caution at her team and started to move further and flurry of bullets were shot at them from three different trees and the soldiers responded killing the three terrorists sitting on them – then there was an eerie silence.
The team started to move further knowing that they were near the terrorist camp they had been briefed about – every soldier raring to have a go at the terrorists. They came to a clearing in the forest and saw the camp of terrorists. She ordered the sniper team to take positions while with a band of 6 soldiers she proceeded further towards the camp around 90 degrees west from the sniper team. The sniper team was placed comfortably at a height and clear vision of the camp.
She was now at the edge of clearing and had to wait there for any signs of how many were holed up in the camp. According to intelligence, they should have been about 10-15 of which they already had killed 5 which left 5-10 in the camp. Her fears were about the camp which was absolutely close to the border with Pakistan that if these terrorists had fled hearing the gun shots, they would now be on the other side of the border. She had to be absolutely sure…
She was wrong… the intelligence was 2 days old and in the meantime more terrorists had infiltrated to this side of the border. The camp had at-least 25 tents and they were filled with terrorists who had infiltrated to this side… She asked one of her team members to fire from the Bazooka they carried into one of the bigger tents and he fired…
The bazooka rocket hit a tent with a huge blast and the terrorists within that tent were eliminated. They saw at-least 50 more emerge from the other tents and were firing randomly for she and her team were well hidden before the clearing started. She waived to her team of snipers and they started hunting the terrorists out in glee. They knew they were helping the world by cleaning these scums up for a better world…
Soon the terrorists realized that they were being sniped out and didn’t know which direction were the snipers located. They started to run helter-skelter trying to find cover from those unseen snipers. She was looking at the positions they were taking and her mind furiously was formulating the final attack on them – though she knew that they were too many for her team. She bade some more time as the snipers took on more terrorists.
Now the terrorists had a rough idea of the direction of the snipers direction and started to take cover accordingly. This exposed them to her and her team who were about 90 degrees from the direction of the snipers. She looked through her binoculars and counted – about 75 of them. There was a small strong hut made of stones and bricks which might house few more terrorists. She waived to a soldier carrying a radio kit and he tuned in to the frequency of the radio used by the terrorists. They were sending a SOS signal to the other side of the border where their Pakistani handler was instructing them to make a run for it and return to Pakistan. The Pakistan army wasn’t ready to face the Indian army. From their conversation she knew that the terrorists were led by some Usman Naquash and she wanted to capture him alive. She guessed that he would be hiding in the safe structure made of stone and bricks…
She thought for a moment and looked at Lt. Kurup “We can take them out. I don’t have any doubts about it…” he cocked his gun.
She looked at Lt. Sayyed “I am raring to go – for long these people have created nuisance – I want them to go to hell…and face 72 gorgons…” he had fire in his eyes.
“You both resonate my thoughts” she had decided, they would take them out and win this battle, “spread out 45 degrees towards your left – it will bring them directly within our firing range as well in our firing sight and wait for my signal. Let’s show them what we are made of…” and the group started to spread out in the formation. While the terrorists were busy in returning fire from the sniper group and looking at other direction where the snipers were located… She looked at the soldiers taking their positions and when she thought they were in correct positions she gave the sign to attack and ran toward the camp opening fire from her Automatic…
Lt Sayyed reloaded the bazooka and targeted the position where the terrorists were huddled in number. The aim was unerring and the explosion created havoc in the camp. Lt Kurup had reached where the huddled terrorists were in the range of his grenade attack he carried out a fascinating grenade attack and the terrorists could only die – they had no chance of survival…
She ran towards the only strong hut, her gun still spitting fire on the terrorists exposed to her. The terrorists had no chance against the onslaught by her team. Soon, all the terrorists lay dead and they had laid the siege to the strong hut. The door was closed and they couldn’t take chance of barging in… She signed to 2 of the soldiers to make sure that all other terrorists were dead – if not make sure that they were dead.
“Raise your hands and surrender or you also will be killed like we have killed all your other terrorists…” Lt Sayyed said this in loud thundering voice which could be heard in the entire camp, “We will count up to 3 and if you do not surrender – your strong hut will be blown including you… One…”
The door to the strong hut opened and 5 people with raised hands came out in surrender. Lt Kurup entered the hut with caution and made sure that it was empty.
“Who amongst you is Usman Naquash?” she asked and a man stepped in front to notify that he was that guy. Lt Sayyed searched him for identification and found his Pakistan army id card and showed it to her, “You are from Pakistan army, why are you here with the terrorists? Or, should we take this as invasion by your army on our soil and take action?”
He just smirked at her in response, “A sexy girl like you should be married, raising kids and satisfying her husband’s sex needs – what are you doing in the army?” he counter questioned her to which Lt Sayyed hit between his wind and water with the butt of his gun and he fell down with a cry of agony but laughed away. Lt Khanna raised his gun to shoot him but was stopped by her…
“Search others…” she ordered, now even the sniper team had joined them knowing that all other terrorists were dead while Usman somehow managed to stand up…
“Bomb !!” Lt Sayyed shouted and all of them fell to the ground in anticipation… Lt Kurup while falling to the ground pulled Usman along with him and Usman fell almost upside down on the mound which raised his legs…
The bomb attached to one of the 4 terrorists who had surrendered, exploded killing all the 4 terrorists instantly while the splinters wounded Usman’s legs crippling him…
“The mission is complete and successful – let’s go back to our base…” she ordered, “we will let the BSF know what happened here and when they come to patrol this point – they will take care of burial of these terrorists or let vultures feast on them – it’s their headache…”
“We will need a stretcher to carry this terrorist back to our base.” Capt Nair said pointing at the wounded legs of Usman.
“No need – we will drag him to our base by his hands in the condition that he is…” Lt Sayyed had flames of hate in his eyes.
“That’s inhuman… will have to amputee his legs once we reach the base which is almost 20 miles away…” Capt Nair argued and looked at her.
“Let’s drag him as Lt Sayyed suggested, anyways he is the leader of these terrorists and is not human at all – he believes in killing innocent humans… and he will live only till he gets interrogated and provides the information he has – after that, he will be shot like a dog…” she smirked looking at the horror seen on the face of Usman and they moved toward the base dragging Usman as planned…
“Congratulations! Capt. Alisha…” Mr Mahal beamed at her, “Well done. No casualties on our side – all terrorists eliminated and you bring back their battered leader alive who is now talking like a parrot. We at SDU (Super Defence Unit) are proud of you and the way you have handled this mission. You have earned your 3 months of free time after which you will be posted at our Mumbai peace station at a desk job for some time to get this mission out of your system. A new mission will be handed out to you once you finish the resting period – unless something important comes up… Go. Enjoy your rest and free time… You don’t look so happy about the fact, any reason?”
“Please give me any other peace station, not Mumbai. You know what happened in the past and going to Mumbai will bring back the memories which I don’t want to think about…”
“Brave girls always fight back the situations they think will be nasty or sad and I know you are the bravest of all… This is your chance to overcome the feelings… Give it a try…” He said with a fatherly feeling as she sank on the chair and nodded.
“Yes… I think, someday I have to overcome all those feelings which I left in and around Mumbai. Ok – I will go to Mumbai and try to overcome them. Thank you, Sir…” she got out of the chair she had sunk into and gave a smart salute to Mr Mahal and left.
Mr Mahal kept looking at the door where she had disappeared, “I don’t want to lose a soldier like her. She is the best we have…” and went back to his desk and his papers.