Given the fact that my cousin and I are senior police officers from India who work on INTERPOL and UNPF assignments, many other officers of the police, military and paramilitary forces have come into our life. Our most famous pastime is narrating stories to each other about our lives and life experiences.
The fact about the Indian Forces is that whenever a person is martyred, his or her soul always hangs around the place and warns the living soldiers about upcoming threats and strategies, which mostly include strategies which they personally followed during their service as a living being. A better way to summarise it as friendly ghost soldiers.
Okay, we will start of with the part-1 where we narrate our mass holiday. According to my cousin, a holiday or vacation does not just mean the visit to a tourist place or a resort or something like that. It involves voluntarily taking an assignment in a very dangerous area and assisting forces to get garbage cleared. My cousin is like that magical broom, who cleans out all the garbage involving terrorists, gangsters, international dons, and all high-profile criminals who are a threat to the world itself.
Our first posting was in North-East India. Over a span of 200 days, we were to take postings in 5 of the 7 Sister States of North-East India, where we had to show some rebels who was the boss. The rebels’ courage had grown exponentially and they would attack any security outpost at any point in time. It need not be narrated specifically but we ended up destroying multiple rebel groups in the area and had taken down tens of thousands of rebels. We confiscated their weapon supplies and burnt out all their narcotic plantations as financial resources for these rebels are obtained by the sale of illegal narcotics. All these things went on well and my cousin who was the commander of the police and paramilitary personnel treated them like his own children and made them courageous and motivated enough to shatter insurgency into pieces.
Nothing huge happened, except during the end of the assignment. We were serving our last posting in Nagaland state, where some tough rebels were at work. Their courage had grown exponentially and they would waste no opportunity in attacking military or paramilitary or police posts and convoys. Given the fact these rebel groups were doing it like a war, we had to stop them.
The rebel leader was said to be violent. That was not a matter of worry as our convoy had a violent commander. That was my cousin who said that a mouth breaking reply was the best for these rebels. When we decided a surgical strike on their 100 base camps, we made ourselves into a team of 30 each for each base camp. Each team had 10 police officers + 10 military officers + 10 paramilitary officers. Our convoy infiltrated the base camps which were inside forests and started our surgical strikes.
The dense forests were so difficult to infiltrate as there was thick vegetation along with many swamps. However, nothing was impossible as my cousin was there. We trekked to the camps which had approximately 1000+ members each and a lot of expensive equipment in each camp. The structure was such that the main camps were in the centre but many subsidiary camps surrounded the main camps in such a way that if we were detected, we could easily be stuck in a cross fire. The main camp was surrounded by the subsidiary camps in such a way that if we attacked the main camp, then the rebels from the subsidiary camp would converge towards the central camp and try to reinforce.
When we reached the main camp cluster, we saw the rebels happily dancing and having their evening snacks. Just to make their hot snacks even hotter, the Assault Team shot inside their mouths. The other rebels suddenly sounded the alarm and came to attack us. They tried their best, but our teams kept shooting with so much precision that every rebel was down within an hour. We achieved this easily by my cousin’s planning which said that everyone should aim their guns at the rebels and shoot only after locking their aims. The heavy class of the teams utilized grenade launchers like MGL M32 and Carl Gustof lauchers that took down many hundred rebels in 2 or 3 shots. All the main base camps were cleared and top targets were now blended with the mud.
Despite this early success and having killed infinitely more rebels than expected, everything was not okay. We had emptied most of our limited ammunition on these rebels, despite careful planning, the number of rebels needed to be killed left us with very little ammunition and we were now caught. We detected movements and intercepted communication which stated that multiple teams of people were coming towards us. At this point, we were pretty terrified and felt that death was approaching us. What we had promised while selecting the Khaki and Camo (Uniforms) was turning to manifest itself in the purest form. In the fear and extreme tiredness, we decided that we will stay quiet and not interact to confuse the upcoming rebel reinforcements. Calling for backup would be worse, as this was a secret mission.
Nevertheless, we conducted our prayer session where we prayed to our respective Gods and decided to fall asleep. Just as we fell asleep, all of us had a great dream. It was as if, a magical bowl of sugar wanted to rain down and sweeten the spice of the situation. In our dreams, two young men came and told us, “No worries children. I have been in this position; you will easily be able to capture them and escape. We all ambush very well so nothing is there to be afraid of.” We wondered who these men were and it turned out to be none other than two of the most celebrated heroes of the 1962 Indo-China War. They were Major Shaitan Singh and Captain Jaswant Singh Rawat, who had done the impossible during the war. During the war, Major Shaitan Singh along with his team of 120 soldiers ambushed and killed more than 17,000 Chinese PLA soldiers and left many others fatally injured. Captain Jaswant Singh Rawat had single-handedly killed more than 300 Chinese PLA soldiers and killed another 10 with just a Bayonet. It was due to the courage of Captain Jaswant Singh Rawat that China was unable to take away Arunachal Pradesh away from India.
Having gotten advice from these two great men, we decided to wake up then and there and called on the radio. “Stupid rebels, we want you, we will tear you into pieces when needed so do not worry.” We decided to stick to each other and when the rebels turned up, we killed each one of them with a single shot from our gun or a grenade. These rebels who were used to last minute preparation were getting shot down like anything. This was the first time in my life that I understood the Law of Gravitation and appreciated Sir Issac Newton for discovering this concept. Thanks to this, every rebel who came up to us, fell down!
Okay, now that we had killed all the rebel reinforcements, we decided that the lane was clear and were relieved more than anything. Suddenly as I walked 5 rebels attacked me and since I had no ammunition left, I used my Bayonet and slit their throats. I killed 4 of them when a rebel suddenly held my legs and told “Do not kill me sir, Leave me alone”. At this point I dragged him out of the forest cover to see his face properly. The 6:00 AM Sun shone brightly at the entry point next to the river. He was not even a man, just a 14-year-old boy who was crying out of extreme fear and confusion. When I was thinking about what could be done, my cousin yelled at me “I hate this, you are slower than the snails in the river while taking decisions”. Just stab that dog and throw him to the crocodiles in the river.” Hearing this, I told “No, I think we should give him a chance”. My cousin told me “How come you have gone back into your childhood? Are you playing good cop- bad cop? Once more time you do not follow orders, and continue this insubordination I will expel you from INTERPOL and UNPF and reduce you back to Sub-Inspector and keep you stationed in our village”. At this point, four things crossed my mind. I could be an obedient officer and respect my senior officer, or be a merciful human and lose my job. Otherwise, I could show mercy on one child and lose my job, after which I would be prevented from helping the many other children who are victims of crime and terrorism.
It was a very difficult and emotionally disturbing moment but I had to accept that in my line of work there is no such thing as mercy and there is only justice. My mercy could be brighter than the Sun shining above, but justice would be much brighter that that. Here justice meant taking that boy’s life. Just as I thought of what could be done, that boy suddenly withdrew his revolver and told me “sir, you are very kind. However, if I die, then the world will be an amazing place” after which he shot himself. I regretted not having confiscated his gun before but my cousin pulled me by my collar saying “Walk fast or you know me. Just leave it”
Okay, more than that emotional ending of the mission, the silver lining was the silver lining. We were invited to the Indian Army base camp in Assam state and were given a proper meal and made to rest in a beautiful bed. When I slept, Major Shaitan Singh and Captain Jaswant Singh Rawat came in my dreams and told me “You did a great job, you fought the rebels very nicely and were also ready to show mercy on that boy. Despite the uncontrollable part of the situation, you still were an amazing officer from all aspects.” Let us meet once again sometime. We will help you put down not only rebels but also the underworlds and other criminals like you did before in the assignment. All the best, saying which they left.”
We woke up the next day to leave Assam state for our new assignment in Kashmir state. We will see more in Part-2.
THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY THAT HAS NO RELATION TO ANY REAL EVENTS. ANY RESEMBLENCE BETWEEN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE STORY TO THAT IN REAL LIFE IS PURELY COINCIDENTIAL AND UNINTENDED.
THIS STORY HAS NO INTENTION TO INSULT OR GLORIFY ANY COUNTRY OR STATE NOR DOES IT HAVE ANY INTENTION TO ASSOCIATE ANY COUNTRY WITH TERRORISM AND/OR CRIME.
THIS STORY HAS NO INTENTION TO PROMOTE VIOLENCE OR HIGHLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR FIGHTS BETWEEN COUNTRIES, STATES AND ETHNICITIES.
HOWEVER, THE NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SOLDIERS ARE REAL AND I REQUEST YOU TO FIND OUT ABOUT THEM VIA THE INTERNET.