ADC to Chinar Corps Commander from early 90s recalls:

 The Gorkhas were pretty disorganized when we reached Kokernag Fire Station. It was a 3 storey building,  pretty big, biggest in the area, with a few hundred metres of clear ground around. Gen Zaki reached the site before the brigade Commander and the GOC (Maj Gen VP Malik, later COAS). The JCOs of the Gorkha company told us that the terrorists were inside the building and they had cordoned it off. They also informed us that the company was ambushed on the Kokernag - Anantnag road. The Gorkhas lost a couple of men in the ambush and gave chase to the terrorists who were now holed up in Kokernag Fire Station. They surrounded it and a local headmaster was sent in to convince them to surrender. That headmaster was shot dead by the terrorists.  During the night, few Gorkhas had tried to enter the building and two of them were shot at point blank range near the door. After which they reported the events to HQ and sat down.

It was just after day break when we reached and we found the cordon haphazard. So Gen Zaki asked me to go around the perimeter and reorganize the cordon. When I went around and returned, I found that Maj Gen Malik had also reached and his escort was also deployed, the 2 generals were discussing. Gen Zaki wanted to go into the building with his escort and Gen Malik and his esport were asked to provide covering fire. Meanwhile,  the Gorkhas were asked to fire at anything that moved. After about 30 minutes, I was asked to go and inform the cordon to stop firing as our troops would enter the building.  I was supposed to coordinate with the cordon and return to lead the Corps Commanders escort into the building.  But when I returned, to my horror,  I found that Gen Zaki and his escort had crawled towards the building and were mere 20m short of the building.  Gen Zaki was unarmed but he wasn't going to stay behind!! Maybe he would strangle these terrorists!!! The escort who were all wearing bullet proof jackets and helmets were trying to form a body shield for the general.  I dashed across the open ground in zigzag fashion and reached this party as we all simultaneously reached the building.  I asked Gen Zaki to stay there under cover with one soldier and I was enter with the rest, when the house was cleared I would come and fetch him. He refused and demanded I hand over my grenades to him, which I did. Now Gen Zaki had 2 grenades, I had a pistol with 10 rounds and the men had Ak47s with 3 magazines each and 2 grenades each. I broke the glass of a ventilator above the door with my pistol butter and Gen Zaki lobbed in one grenades. After it exploded, he paused for about 5-10 seconds and lobbed in the second. Immediately after that too burst, I kicked the door in and entered. Behind me was the JCO and behind him was Nk Budhi Singh followed by Gen Zaki.

The explosions kicked up a lot of dust and smoke and we could hardly see. Entering through the door, we found ourselves in a 6 ft wide corridor and we were blinded as we came from bright snow covered outside to dark, dusty inside.  I was about 14-15 ft inside the door and the last of the escort was Entering when we heard a burst of AK fire from further up the corridor, bullets whizzing past us and a couple of flashes through the smoke.

Miraculously all the bullets missed me and the JCO.  One bullet hit Nk Budhi Singh on hit left palm, in which he was holding the barrel of his AK 47. The bullet, splinters and fragments from the rifle barrel richocheted up and hit Gen Zaki on the forehead and scalp. If he was an inch taller, he would have died then. But the firing stopped as abruptly as it started (guess they emptied a magazine and ran upstairs). As soon as the escort realised that Gen Zaki was hit, those behind him pulled him out of the door. Everyone scrambled for the door and jumped out, except me. I was too far into the corridor to make it to the door, so I dived into a room. Now I was all alone in this room on the ground floor, just 10 pistol rounds and no grenades. As Gen Zaki was being recovered to safety,  Gen Malik ordered the Gorkhas to open fire, so machine guns from all sides started to hit the building.  I wasn't worried as I  took position in the room, covering the staircase with my pistol. Then the bullets fired by the Gorkhas started to go through the walls all around me. I then realized that though the structure was RCC, the walls were made of mud and hay, finished beautifully like a brick wall with smooth plastering. I found a pillar between 2 windows and put my back to it. Then I thought to let people know that I am alive, so leaned into the window and waved. Several long bursts of LMG fire were aimed at these windows. For 45 minutes I stayed there, bullets going through both windows as the Gorkhas thought they had one terrorist pinned between the windows. Soon they started to fire 84mm Carl Gustaf rockets HE rounds at the building.  Relentlessly, one after the other. A truckload of ammunition had by now reached the site from the unit location and I had the task of trying to guess which side would be hit by the next rocket. Every 30 seconds or so, another rocket would be fired. The building was mostly dilapidated and I had lost my hearing but somehow, mind was sharper than ever. I was literally counting how much time it would take to reload, aim and fire. Using that time to run to the opposite side. Guessing right each and every time. God bless the Gorkhas for being predictable 🙏.
When the building was mostly destroyed and no movement could be seen for some time, the ADC of Gen Malik with his escort approached the building. This was Capt Khera of the Armoured Corps,  son of a Maratha LI officer. I saw him when he was about 75m away and yelled out "Khera sir, stop firing, this is AP here". A lot of shouting ensued and the firing stopped. I kept talking to him as I reached the door. He said "Hurry up, Gen Zaki is hit in the head, RMO has done the dressing,  but is refusing to be evacuated till he sees you, he thinks you may be in worse shape". I was take to where he was, convoy lined up,  him lying in the back of a Jonga, barely awake.

More, I stopped counting. That one day, I had more than 300 bullets pass me within arms reach. There were a few holes in my cap and uniform. 

But that was the easy part. Every time they fired RL, I needed to guess which side  was going to be hit, so I could run to the opposite side. One wrong guess and it would be curtains. But I predicted that the Gorkas wouldn't fire all 4 RLs on all 4 sides at once and was right, they fired one at a time. Then I guessed that the JCO would fire sequentially in clockwise direction and that turned out right too. Then I guessed that the interval between rockets would be roughly 30 to 45 seconds and even that was right. Then I guessed that the Gorkhas wouldn't change the firing pattern till they ran out of ammunition or the target was destroyed and again I was right. This unthinking,  clockwork repetitive and entirely predictable pattern kept me alive.

Hearing impairment for a week was minor price to pay in the end. Recovered hearing fully.

Also read: 

https://ali-writings.blogspot.com/search?q=ADC

https://ali-writings.blogspot.com/2021/01/an-adc-recalls-his-charge-chinar-corps.html

 https://open.substack.com/pub/aliahd66/p/pahalgam-as-ajit-dovals-cross-to?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=i1fws

Pahalgam as Ajit Doval’s cross to bear

The press release on Ajit Doval’s appointment as national security adviser has it that his tenure would be coextensive with that of Narendra Modi as prime minister. Both are now into their third tenure in respective appointments.

Doval helped with Modi’s image-building as a strong-man at various junctures of Modi’s political journey. Evidently, Modi continues to need Doval for upping his political game.

With Pahalgam, Doval has delivered another Pulwama-sized opportunity to buoy Modi’s political persona and pitch on the cusp of campaigning in the forthcoming elections in Bihar.

With elections in Bengal to follow next year, the scene is being set for gaining a majority in both houses for the ruling party.

Coming as the Pahalgam outrage did close on the heels of the Jaffar train hijack incident and Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s fulminations, Pahalgam is laid squarely at Pakistan’s door.

However, Doval must be arraigned for creating the conditions that led to Pahalgam. Clearly, intelligence operations went overboard on his watch.

Modi has reiterated the ‘harshest response’. Doval is presumably dutifully busy with whistling up a Modi-era Lightning Campaign for ‘unimagined’ punishment.

Just as Pulwama was rather aptly timed for Modi’s political trajectory, Pahalgam may in retrospect turn out to be equally so – if all goes well for India’s military.

It bears reflection that such a momentous decision could stem from a few jihadi terrorists striking lucky at an unguarded meadow.

It should instead be a logical step up from preceding contingency planning, exercises and equipping effort.

Such gigantic national efforts are not predicated on triggers outsourced to the enemy or its proxies.

In other words, a conspiracy theory on Pahalgam cannot be ruled out.

The opportunity has been seized by the military, knowing it would prove cathartic for its showing at Balakot and over Rajauri; and indeed, also in Ladakh.

Since Balakot, its readied itself with the S-400 and Rafales; the latter was sorely missed in the skies over Rajauri by the then Air Chief. It is already softening up Pakistani defences along the Line of Control to also keep Pakistan guessing where the impending blow will fall. It’s started an energetic exercise with the portents of an Exercise Brasstacks.

Though intended for such contingencies, Cold Start – formally termed Proactive Strategy (PAS) - has been a non-starter.

It’s uncertain if the military dithered or if Doval got cold feet, but the fact is that the non-initiation of PAS allows for extended preparation time with the logic of attacking at ‘a place and time of own choosing.’

The upshot is a longer duration revving up for war.

The hiatus furnishes the right-wing ecosystem time to deepen the communal divide, an opportunity for which it never needed any beckoning – though the leisured terror attack was a specifically crafted invite.

For Modi, it could prove useful to pocket the hold-out states along the Ganga waterway – Bihar and Bengal – where tactics deployed in Haryana and Maharashtra may not work since the state governments are not double-engined.

Such a windfall for the right-wing political agenda suggests an alternate truth.

If Baisaran could attract the attention of an itinerant forest-ensconced jihadi outfit, that it missed security scrutiny is inexplicable in any other terms than as an open invitation.

That the jihadis hewed so closely to a script that would gladden right-wing hearts invokes suspicion on who exactly was the script writer.

Consequently, a conspiracy theory on Pahalgam needs to be ruled in.

After all, recall the Pulwama blast was on a convoy that should not have been there in first place.

If Pakistanis had done the outrage at Chattisinghpora, why the elaborate cover-up at Pathribal and Barakpore; not to forget the judicial calisthenics thereafter?

Consequently, given Indian propensity for plausibly deniable intelligence operations and in light of the immense political dividend for the right wing from the Pahalgam strike, Pahalgam cannot readily be taken as a solely fortuitous occurrence.

For now, allowing for Pahalgam as Pakistan’s doing, it’s evident that Pakistani intelligence minds have divined the Indian reality masterfully. Their script for the jihadis ensures India reacted exactly in the manner they wished.

What does this bespeak of India of today? What is Doval’s complicity in the creation of such an India?

That is Doval’s cross to bear in history.

If and since Doval is currently readying the security establishment for a war with potential to go nuclear, he should be faulted for going down this route at jihadi behest.

In other words, if Pahalgam was not a black operation, it really ought to have been one.

And, if it wasn’t, Doval is eminently sackable for being enticed into a war, the end game of which can only be talks in which the status of Munir’s jugular will prominently figure.

The good part is that the opposite number is Asim Munir. Though not a Yahya - he is no drunk - he may instead be high on what was opium to Marx.

Even so, the military must be cautioned that capriciousness of war outcomes can only be tempered by strategic wisdom.

If the military falls short on the latter, poetic justice will catch up with Doval and mentor Modi. But that cannot be any patriot’s wish.

 https://aliahd66.substack.com/p/kashmir-terror-attack-a-conflict

Kashmir: A conflict resolution strategy goes awry

https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/kashmir-terror-attack-a-conflict-resolution-strategy-goes-awry-3506683

In its last tenure in power, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government put in place a strategy for conflict resolution in Kashmir predicated on the abolishing of Article 370. It has since conducted elections in the Union Territory (UT) under the Supreme Court’s nudging, with its promise of a return to statehood in good time still pending.

The April 22 terror near Pahalgam accounting for 28 lives, mainly of tourists, is evidence that the strategy is a work-in-progress.

Consequently, while measures such as enforcing accountability for any security lapse are put in place internally within the security apparatus, the government would do well to persist with the strategy without deflection.

Such terror instances must surely have been anticipated and the response contingencies worked out prior. The response would likely be to restore deterrence, to the extent the terror strike demonstrates a certain dilution in it.

The strategy prong in regard to deterrence has been the bold conduct of surgical strikes. It is not impossible to visualise a retributive surgical strike, to restore deterrence.

Such a strike could range from visible military action along the Line of Control (LoC) or the Pakistani mainland to a covert, intelligence agency-conducted operation at the origin of terror.

Alongside, escalation control measures would need to be in place, which include pre-emptive military posturing to dispel any notion in Pakistan for escalation on its part.

Since the national mood is outraged, a cool-headed approach would be required so that neither the terrorist action nor the bellicosity of the mob influences decision making unduly.

On this score, a preconceived perception management line of action for such contingencies would require to kick in early. Transparency within, including through a line to the opposition to manage its expectations, without compromising security, might be necessary.

It is possible that Pakistani handlers may have unleashed this terror action to get even over — in its perception — an Indian hand in the recent terror attack on a train by Baloch separatists.

It is apparent from the recent inflammatory speech to a diaspora audience by the Pakistan army chief that the Pakistan army is rather embarrassed by its sustaining a body blow from its domestic terrorists. Consequently, it has activated what it might believe is its response.

However, in order that the cycle does not acquire a momentum of its own, any Indian retaliatory action may be supplemented by a below-the-radar reaching out through existing subterranean intelligence circuits to Pakistan to caution it against getting into a self-sustaining tit-for-tat loop.

Diplomatically, while rhetoric may be deployed to play to respective domestic audience by both sides, the professional channels must be worked to the extent they can — truncated as these have been for over five years without high commissioners in place — to soto voce sensitise Pakistan to its vulnerable underbelly.

Managing the external environment would also be significant, since the terror attack was timed with not only the visit of the US Vice President J D Vance to India but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

Given the terror hallmarks of the incident, the global opinion would be behind any Indian response. But foreign capitals would likely also encourage caution against falling prey to the design of terrorists out to generate an India-Pakistan crisis to draw attention to Kashmir as a festering problem.

In the event, Modi cut short his visit to take stock back in New Delhi, having staged forward Home Minister Amit Shah for managing the response on the ground.

While the resulting stock-taking might eventuate in a measured retribution, the political leadership would do well to acknowledge the pressures on decision makers in crisis situations and avoid resulting pitfalls.

Under the circumstance, singlemindedness in following through with the conflict resolution strategy the government has long been embarked on is sorely on test.

The government must stay the course and not be waylaid by a group of terrorists or their handlers out to throw a spanner in the works.

Any posturing or grandstanding can be as per the dictates of perception management, but must not be at the cost of strategic rationality. Such a remorselessly steady hand at the rudder will be its own dampener for any future acts of terror.

Strategic felicity lies in turning the incident into an opportunity.

The terrorists have directly hit the means of livelihood of Kashmiris: the tourism sector and its subset, pilgrimage. Taking advantage of their misstep, in tandem with the UT government, the Centre must retrieve psychological ground.

There is no denying that terrorism has been simmering in Kashmir. It can potentially upturn India's economic trajectory, through an India-Pakistan military faceoff, and aggravate social divides elsewhere in India. Those wishing for such an outcome must be denied it with sagacious handling of such provocation.

The Centre’s trump card — restoration of statehood — can be deftly pulled out and launched with plausible benchmarks and a discernible timeline as culmination of its conflict resolution strategy.