Authors: AJAY
Constitutional Avenue
Aban's uncle reached
Islamabad and sought an urgent appointment with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Although the PM was to attend the Monday morning cabinet meeting at his Secretariat, he granted time to Aban's
Chacha Jaan
.
Chacha Jaan
rented a cab and reached the grand residence of the PM at Constitutional Avenue. The staff at the reception escorted him to the living room. The PM came and shook hands with
Chacha Jaan
, "I think you have something very important to tell me."
"Mr. Prime Minister, I want a secluded place."
"You can speak here. We sweep for bugs every day."
"I'm afraid, Mr. Prime Minister. The bug sweepers are from the Army."
The PM looked at him for some time and asked him to come to the study. When
Chacha Jaan
explained what he knew, the Prime Minister was deeply disturbed. "Are you sure al Qaeda can pull off something as big as that?"
"I'm certain, Mr. Prime Minister. These are some of the photographs, which prove their recent activities."
"When did the semtex reach Karachi?"
"Two months back."
The Prime Minister watched some more photographs. "According to you, the diver and the submarine have already placed the explosives. But who is behind all this?"
"Saeed al-Masri, the financial chief of al Qaeda."
"Any news on Indian dam sites?"
"I cannot substantiate, but I have come to know that the semtex was sent from Port Said to Garudeshwar in Gujarat."
"Garudeshwar?"
"It's a very small town, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam. If we combine this information with the recent event of the assassination bid on the Chief Minister of Gujarat, there is a high probability that the dam might be sabotaged."
"What will anyone gain by doing this?"
"The hatred of the Muslim community for the Chief Minister of Gujarat is well known. Not only do Indian Muslims target him, but he is also under the radar of JeM, LeT and to some extent of the al Qaeda too. What is more perturbing is the LeT's stance. They think that the Hindus of Gujarat should also be taught a lesson for their blind support to the ruling party of Gujarat.
Chacha Jaan
described the scenario of the dam break, in no uncertain terms.
"The Sardar Sarovar Dam broke. It inundated the fertile plain of south Gujarat while the wall of water moved at ferocious velocity; smashing, crushing and devouring everything in its path. The megaflood flowed half a mile above the tallest building and surged ahead to meet the Arabian Sea. All the cities of Southern Gujarat came under the deluge. The industrial belt of Vapi-Surat-Bharuch was ruined. The fertile land and green belt from Valsad to Vadodara became a wetland for many years. All major road and rail lines connecting Mumbai to Delhi got swamped, crippling the movement of goods from major ports of western India to north India. The canal supplying drinking and irrigation water to Ahmedabad and the Saurashtra region dried up forever."
"But there is a sizeable Muslim population too in Gujarat."The Prime Minister was perplexed.
"That's true, Mr. Prime Minister. But who cares for a handful of Muslims when it is a question of Jihad?"
The Prime Minister began to pace up and down the room. He lit a cigarette, brought it to his lips, but snuffed it out in the ashtray without even taking a drag.
Chacha Jaan
handed over a few more photographs to the Prime Minister, "I've been tracking the al Qaeda movement to our nuclear sites. These photographs, which were picked up from an Air Force Base, are scary."
"So you think our nukes may be compromised too?"
"Absolutely, Mr. Prime Minister."
"Which Air Force Base is this one?"
"I don't know, Mr. Prime Minister. We need to find out."
The Prime Minister stopped to consider, "Pakistan is already under pressure from the USA to secure all nuclear weapons. They have offered to put PAL, the permissive action link in the nuclear warheads to eliminate chances of any unauthorized use. However, the Pakistani Army declined the offer, fearing that America may sabotage the nukes by remotely changing the electronic lock and thus turning them into nothing more than dummy warheads. We have been able to secure the warheads to some extent through the coded switch devices that we procured from America."
The Prime Minister sipped a glass of water. He continued to weigh the pros and cons, still pacing the floor. "The situation today is very complex. In case the Americans come to know about the possibility of our nukes falling into the hands of al Qaeda, the US might even launch a preemptive attack on Pakistani nuclear sites?"The Prime Minister was trying to find a solution to the conundrum. "It will be a bad strategy to involve America in this matter right now. Even though our efforts are fraught with tremendous risks, Pakistan will have to solve the dilemma on its own."
After mulling over it for a long time, the Prime Minister stood up and shook hands with
Chacha Jaan
once again, "I'll do whatever is best for our country."
Chacha Jaan
left. The Prime Minister picked up his hot line and made a call.
Samadhi
Siddhartha worked with
his team for almost a week. On many occasions, he slept for only a few hours in his office. He compiled and scanned each and every clue and lead to Tupac-II.
Siddhartha became increasingly convinced that if the riddle of Tupac-II had to be solved, it only had to be through Aban's laptop and his father's watch.
The details he got from the FBI office in Dubai were not sufficient. The photograph and the video file of the four people in the yacht were grainy, even after enhancing them digitally. Siddhartha could not obtain much information except the height of the two unknown people. One silhouette seemed to match Sundaram Iyer's; another shadowy outline seemed to belong to the mystery man, who had come to India.
The discussions in the conference room of the yacht, which was bugged by the woman agent of the FBI, threw very little light on the actual course of events.
To analyze the technical aspects of the discussion in the yacht, Siddhartha invited a team of engineers. They could only decipher that a resonance in a pool can cause the successive rising of tidal waves with some destructive potential. That the effect of the biggest Tsunami could not break a strong dam in Italy was a fact confirmed by the best engineers. The effect was also termed harmless for a big dam. According to them, the biggest known damage caused by a seiche was the one, which created a ten feet wave in the Lake Michigan. It hit the Chicago waterfront, swept away eight fishermen and drowned them.
Two disturbing facts emerged. The first was the unnoticed oscillation of the reservoir of Koyna dam, which had created a highly destructive earthquake in the past. The second was the possibility of a water-pancake effect, which can be caused when a dam structure begins to resonate with the frequency of hammering tidal waves. Because of oscillation, the center of buoyancy of a huge water-mass can progressively shift both upward and downward. Resonance and shifting buoyancy could be a dangerous combination. The latter could cause the buoyant force of the water body to bob up and down. Every time the force hits the top portion of the dam, it will push it away towards the downstream and each time it will move down and affect the lower part of the dam, it will try to topple the dam towards the upstream side. A moving torque will be created. This will weaken different parts of the dam. The capacity of the dam to resist overturning, sliding and crushing at the toe will diminish with each passing minute. Finally, the dam will give way once the overturning force becomes more than the weight of the dam. In a worst-case scenario, an upheaval similar to Koyna dam might occur. No dam can withstand a high seismic surface acceleration and the dam will buckle under the pressure and give way.
But which dam? The question remained unanswered. The simulation of the actual dam under threat was not available to Siddhartha, since Somashekhar Rao had run that simulation on his laptop in the conference room of the yacht. Saeed Masri had prevented its transfer to even a remote server for complete confidentiality.
Another fact that caught Siddhartha's attention was the date assigned to the catastrophe. As discussed in the yacht, it had to be the the date of the death anniversary of the philosopher and sage Ramana Maharishi.
Siddhartha checked the date. It was 14
th
April. He picked up his pencil and encircled the date on his table calendar'14
th
April 2010 and scribbled "Place'???"in bold right next to the date.
There was another hint regarding the place'it was the place where a great saint had taken 'Water
Samadhi'
, which is supposed to bring ultimate Nirvana.
Siddhartha searched through the lists of saints, who took
samadhi
. There were hundreds. A few important ones were: Saint Dnyaneshwar at Alandi, Nivrutti at Tryambakeshwar and others. But most of the places were not near any lake or river. Some were. The great saint and music composer Thyagaraja had attained
samadhi
on the banks of river Cauvery, Saint Eknath in the holy Ganges River and a few more.
One of the places that kept coming back to Siddhartha's attention'the temple of Vasudevanand Saraswati, was situated on the right bank of Narmada River at Garudeshwar, Gujarat. The Saint propagated the philosophy of respecting all religions. He would instruct the Muslims to chant
Ayats
, the verses from Qur'an. Parsis visited him to receive grace. Before taking
samadhi
, he sat up, facing the Lord in the west, performed
tratak
(steady gaze), controlled his breath and quit the body with a loud chant of Om.
Siddhartha thought aloud, "Garudeshwar is hardly seven and half miles from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. All leads, including the consignment of semtex to Garudeshwar and the assassination bid on the Chief Minister of Gujarat points to this dam. He lifted the eraser and rubbed the question mark, put against the heading; 'Place' in the calendar and put 'Garudeshwar' against the blank.
He now scribbled 'SS', the abbreviation for Sardar Sarovar inside the date encircled'14
th
April 2010.
The game was on… … ..
U.S. President
The Prime Minister
of Pakistan disconnected his hotline. He asked his secretary to contact the Chief of Staff of the White House and inform him that the Prime Minister needed to talk to the President of the United States.
Within half an hour, he received confirmation. The Prime Minister explained the gravity of the situation to the President.
"So, you think the al Qaeda may be involved."
"Indeed, Mr. President."
"What do you want us to do?"
"We would need the satellite images of the movement of the al Qaeda men in the area. Deployment of the US Special Operation commandos in select locations of Islamabad will also be required. The Marines, who are experts in underwater explosives, should be repositioned from the Gulf region. Drone attacks on the intruders is imperative."
"But your parliament has recently passed a resolution, condemning our drone attacks."
"You are aware of our government's limitations, Mr. President. We support the Allies War against al Qaeda, but we also need to address our constituencies, since public opinion is against the presence of Americans on Pakistani soil."
"Do you have a specific target in mind?"
"Yes, Mr. President. My source has provided me with accurate photographs."
"Anything else?"
"I want U.S. experts to bug my residence, office and the PM Secretariat."
"What?"The President could not believe his ears. It was perhaps the first time in the history of any sovereign country that the Head of Government of one country had asked another country to bug its most important office and residence.
Home Minister
The Home Minister
of India called an emergency meeting of the different departments of intelligence: R&AW, IB, CBI, the Director General of Police of Gujarat, CISF and CRPF in the conference room of North Block. The Chief of the Armed Forces was a special invitee.
Siddhartha Rana accompanied the Director of IB. When he entered the conference room, he saw to his dismay, Sundaram Iyer shaking hands with the Home Secretary. Their eyes met. Sundaram smiled while Siddhartha squirmed in his seat.
The Home Minister started the discussion, "Gentleman, we have a grave situation. The Prime Minister has received information that terrorists from Pakistan and possibly al Qaeda have infiltrated India. They are all set on a mission to blow up a big dam in order to bring massive destruction to our country. We have concluded that Sardar Sarovar Dam may come under attack. We still don't know exactly when, but it may be sooner than we think."The Minister went on to explain about the leads and shared everything he knew.
The DGP of Gujarat could not stop himself any longer. He blurted out, "Sir, we've been pointing out this fact for a long time that Gujarat is not only on the Pakistani terrorist's radar, but also on that of the al Qaeda. And the problem is magnified because even Indian Muslims support al Qaeda and LeT. These flesh mongers have their guns trained not only for the destruction of Gujarat, but also plan to assassinate top politicians including the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Unfortunately, the Central Government has turned a blind eye to all our concerns."The DGP was really exasperated.
"Well, now we have Gujarat as our sole point of focus."The Home Secretary said drily.
"I need to convey the wishes of the Gujarat Chief Minister. He makes it very clear that if the Central Government continues to support the fundamentalists at the cost of the majority population, Gujarat is not going to cooperate."The DGP said with stubborn finality.
The Home Minister joined in, "We are not here to score points against each other. The nation stands above any state. As an top IPS officer, you are expected to keep your brief limited to security concerns and not dabble in politics."Sundaram Iyer almost rubbed his hands with glee.
"The Gujarat police forces have their own limitations. We may not be in a position to deploy sufficient police force at Sardar Sarovar."
"Why?"
"We have more than a dozen major dams to guard, and many other vital industrial installations. We face a perpetual threat from Muslim fundamentalists. How can we forget the attack on Akshardham Temple that led to major casualties?"
"Please get this clear in your head that we are a nation first."The Home Minister said firmly, "The CISF takes care of Sardar Sarovar. And the Central Government will deploy central forces at other sensitive locations."
The DG thought it fit to keep his mouth shut for the time being. The Home Minister continued, "Any more suggestions?"
Siddhartha raised his hand. The Minister nodded and Siddhartha spoke out, "Sir, my Director has already briefed you about everything we have come to know about the Tupac-II plot. However, I could decipher the date only an hour before this meeting."
"What date is it?"
"14
th
April."When Siddhartha said this, Sundaram Iyer shifted uneasily.
"14
th
April is just two days away."The Home Minister was obviously alarmed. He turned to the Director of CISF, "Has your unit noticed anything unusual at Sardar Sarovar in the last few days?"
"Sir, I've verified with the Deputy Commandant at Sardar Sarovar. There is nothing unusual except that some fishermen tried to reach near the dam. The patrolling party intercepted them and questioned them thoroughly. The DC said that the fishermen seemed to be innocent people from Garudeshwar, a small village near the dam."
"How long did they stay near the dam?"
"About two hours before our people sighted them."
"That's a pretty long time for anyone to dump explosives."Sundaram Iyer chipped in, "I suggest that the CISF carry out extensive sweeping for explosives around the lake, but more intensively at the toe of the dam."
The Director of R&AW was worried. He turned to the Home Minister, "Sir, you need to discuss the matter in the cabinet. We have already taken a stand after the Mumbai attack that if Pakistan is involved in any further attack on India, we will retaliate with all weapons at our disposal. Even the President of the United States supports our view. America is willing to attack inside Pakistan territory, if something like the Mumbai attacks originates from Pakistani soil."
"I can understand your point. Before coming to this meeting, we had a long discussion in the National Security Council meeting. The Foreign Minister doesn't subscribe to this philosophy. Moreover, we should not blame Pakistan if some non-state actor tries to do mischief."
"If the dam bursts, it won't be an innocuous mischief. The impending cost will be unimaginable. Our option in view of public opinion will be limited,"Sundaram Iyer rejoined.
"Well Mr. Iyer, the government will decide the course of action. We have mechanisms to deal with such situation."The Home Minister turned to the Chief of the Armed Forces, "What is your assessment of the situation?"
"We have information about troop movement of Pakistani Armed Forces at our LOC and also at the Punjab and Rajasthan border. We tried to ascertain this with the Pakistan Chief, but he was evasive in his reply. Our Defence Minister has given us the go-ahead to match their strength. We have moved our army from the hinterland and put the Air Force and the Navy on maximum alert."
The Home Minister wondered how Siddhartha could pinpoint the date of the impending attack and asked for an explanation.
"Sir, we tracked a yacht which sailed from Dubai. The agents of the FBI bugged the yacht and recorded the conversation that took place in the conference room. The participants talked about the date and the place of attack also. The date is confirmed and the place is the best possible guess according to the information available to the IB."Siddhartha said, and then turned to see the reaction of Sundaram Iyer. Sundaram was leaning on one side of his chair, staring at the floor blankly.
"See me in my chamber after the meeting."The Home Minister told Siddhartha and moved the motion that the meeting be adjourned.