The Pillars of Destiny

By Bob Butalia

The Pillars of Destiny is an action packed slickly crafted thriller with a stunning climax. It is a gripping sequel to In the Shadows of Destiny where Durga emerges as prime minister of India, following the biggest terror strike the world has ever seen.
Widespread skepticism of Durgas ascension seems justified as India reels under blows from Chinas Peoples Liberation Army and Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence. The Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya is crippled by a highly innovative strike by Major Dingbang even as Chinese and Pakistan instigated insurgent attacks overwhelm India. The top Indian military leadership is killed by a cruise missile attack and the narrow Siliguri Corridor is almost severed by a PLA attack.
Durga takes tough decisions to fan Uyghur resistance in Xinjiang, orders launch of a armor strike against terror bases in Pakistan, gets a giant Chinese oil tanker captured by Somali pirates and authorizes a Special Forces drop to cut the Western Highway joining Tibet and Xinjiang. As the conflict escalates a high tech Indian air attack against a tunnel in the perma frost zone cripples the Lhasa-Golmud high altitude railway line. In sync with instigating widespread internal sabotage and communal riots in India, also abetted by Pakistan, China launches an offensive to cut off north east India through Bhutan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Nov 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482859997

Bob Butalia

Bob Butalia is a former Indian Army tank corps brigadier with wide experience of both conventional conflict and anti-insurgent operations. He participated in the Battle of Basantar, the last major tank battle fought in the Indian subcontinent. He is currently an advisor to a well-known US multinational company in India. Married with two children, Bob has a wife with an unerring eye for detail, a son in the army whose spouse is a journalist, and a journalist daughter married to a banker, so constructive criticism is a constant companion. Bob has been through the mortification and chastening experience of losing an only copy of a draft of a book more than a decade ago and suffering a writer’s block thereafter. His weight-loss e-book Zen and the Art of Burning Belly and Butt Fat is a digression from his preferred genre. The feedback from readers of The Assassin’s Mace has resulted In the Destiny Trilogy. The Pillars of Destiny is the second book of the Trilogy.

Book preview

Prologue

This work of fiction is a sequel to "In the Shadow of Destiny." It is the second book of the Destiny Trilogy. The story thus far:

A vehicle carrying Durga and her parents while she was a young girl was ambushed by Maoist insurgents. Durga survived the encounter while her parents were killed. As a captive Durga was taken under the wings of a woman insurgent Indra who had saved Durga from rape by her colleagues immediately after the ambush.

Some months later the insurgent group was in turn trapped by Indian Security Forces and eliminated. An exhausted Durga and her mentor Indra had been trailing the insurgent group. They were both out of the killing zone when the ambush was sprung and escaped unhurt. Mentored by Indra, Durga eventually made her way to her Uncle Brijesh Vadera and was adopted by him and his wife Kanta.

Durga became a brilliant student in the care of her foster parents. After she won a National Science Talent Scholarship she was picked up by a multinational company Gripen International for further training. Durga was then sent to the US along with Ravi Rathore another bright student for further studies. Both of them became lovers briefly and launched a 3D innovative product that attracted venture capital.

Durga sold out her shares after the company was established and achieved complete financial independence. She thereafter pursued Economics in London and returned to India. Kanta her foster mother was a provincial politician. Her election logistics were master minded by Durga on returning to India.

Kanta was assassinated while campaigning for re-election. Durga accompanying Kanta bit into the armed killer’s hand and prevented him from escaping. By this act of bravery she became an overnight national sensation. Sometime later Durga joined politics by being elected as an independent member of parliament and eventually joined the BJP.

In 2010 taking advantage of a moribund US economy constraining US power, the Hu Jintao led Standing Committee of the Chinese Politburo sought to clip the potential rise of India. India was perceived as a new American ally. The actions against India were to be commenced immediately while the US was reeling from the after effects of an economic slowdown. A time frame was set for accomplishment of this mission.

Brigadier Syed Ali had been forcibly retired from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by CIA pressure for his close links to the Taliban. He was a visionary in the intelligence game with decades of hands on experience. Syed Ali was widely respected and admired by the young guns of the ISI.

To get India to relinquish its hold on Kashmir, claimed by Pakistan as its own territory, a crippling terror strike was planned by Syed Ali against multiple targets in New Delhi. This took place with tacit encouragement from the ISI chief. The act was planned from a secret base Syed Ali had established in the national capital area years earlier while still in the ISI.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) picked up an inkling of the Syed Ali inspired Pakistan based terror group intentions to infiltrate into India. The PLA used this information as a synergy creating trigger towards achieving its own ends.

The PLA coordinated offensive actions included electronic warfare measures that facilitated Syed Ali’s strikes in Delhi. Indian insurgent groups operating in north east and eastern India were then roped in by China to tie up Indian forces at multiple locations.

On the Indian side mounting security concerns had triggered a belated attempt by the Indian Prime Minister to create a much needed secretive crisis management group. The constituents of this group were high achievers from diverse fields. This was from both within and outside government.

This Crisis Management Group (CMG) created was led by Ashok Sobti a former Cabinet Secretary with support from a brilliant mix of security, business and scientific talent. The group’s strategic activities were financed off the country’s balance sheet. CMG achieved this by squeezing large sums of money from Indian tax evaders, who had amassed great wealth in tax havens abroad.

The CMG was tasked to address inequalities in the Indian power structure. Indian democratic practices and traditions were simply not geared to handle emergency aspects where use of force could be expected to be a norm with respect to China and Pakistan. Institutionalized Indian out of the box capabilities had been severely neglected till then. Raja Santhanam a wealthy businessman with multi-faceted talent was chosen by the Indian Prime Minister to set up a foundation to veil to cover the group’s clandestine activities.

A small US based company Carlos Rodriguez Ash International (CRAI) using unique proprietary software was hired by Raja to analyze Chinese intentions. The software model used by CRAI was based on feeding in the personal motivations of China’s ruling elite. CRAI sent Ash Conway to work with the Santhanam Foundation in India as this would permit continuous liaison.

The terror strikes, choreographed by Brigadier Syed Ali in minute detail, targeted Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi and its immediate vicinity. Targets included fuel stations, hotels and a metro rail line during a spell of bad weather. The Indian prime minister’s aircraft returning from a trip abroad was brought down by a surface to air missile. It killed him and all aboard the aircraft. Another aircraft carrying the US Ambassador back to India was seriously damaged resulting in his death in a forced landing.

Three other parked commercial aircraft of western countries origin were also destroyed on the ground. This was done by a Syed Ali team using shoulder fired missiles from outside the airport perimeter. Sabotage also derailed a full load metro train, two petrol bunks and targeted the Radisson Hotel causing many thousands of casualties.

To top it all up an Indian cabinet meeting to review the crisis was bombed in the heart of Delhi by Syed Ali. The entire cabinet of ministers was killed or wounded. This left India essentially leaderless for a critical period.

Chinese intervention through a large scale internet denial of service attack out of Hainan Island compounded the chaotic situation. In the worst terror attack the world had seen thousands of civilian casualties took place. These terrorist actions brought Delhi to a screeching halt.

To test India’s resolve China also staged an incident in a disputed area in Aksai Chin, in north eastern Kashmir. This was made to coincide with the leadership vacuum caused by Syed Ali’s terror attacks.

A Chinese helicopter with a Uyghur crew was shot down by a Chinese Special Forces team led by Captain Dingbang in a false flag attack. The incident was attributed to the Indians by the Chinese media. China thereafter immediately launched a limited attack to capture Daulet Beg Oldi Airfield in North Eastern Kashmir in supposed retaliation.

India agreed to carry out computer simulation tests of Iran’s nuclear weapon. This followed a backroom deal engineered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Saurabh Mehrotra an Iran based Indian, with extensive oil based business interests, was instrumental in the success of the negotiations.

The quid pro quo for India for the Iran deal was China being denied access to a promised naval base by Iran in the Gulf. It also included extensive favorable energy deals with Iran. India also fomented attacks within Pakistan with Iranian cooperation. These were spear headed by rebel groups in Baluchistan. These actions effectively stymied additional formations of the Pakistan Army from moving to the border with India in collusion with China.

Chapter 1

NATGRID

‘BANANA REPUBLIC OF INDIA’ was the headline. It covered half the front page of the International Herald Tribune. The outsized print was above the picture of a hundred or more mangled bodies. A wild eyed woman held a dead child in her arms.

The picture captured the world’s reaction to the ghastly sequence of events played out in Delhi. With the media spotlight unwavering in focus India was found wanting every which way in dealing with the aftermath of terror once again.

Durga observed putting down the newspaper The knives are already out. Apparently India can’t seem to do anything to cope!

Ch. Tompok Singh who had just been appointed as the Home Minister by Durga nodded assent It’s going to get much worse in the coming days!

A BBC news channel on the extra large screen TV in the room had the volume up adequately for both of them to see and hear developments.

Ariel Dayan a US based journalist was acknowledged as one of the worlds’ foremost authorities on fighting terror. He witnessed some of the effects of the strike on New Delhi first hand. By happenstance, he was staying at the Radisson Blu Hotel, in the immediate vicinity of Indra Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. He brutally summed up the immediate aftermath for BBC journalist Susan Walker. The latter could be seen on the screen standing alongside Ariel Dayan. She was interviewing Ariel Dayan just outside the Delhi International Airport.

Smoke could be seen in the background by TV viewers emanating from smoldering planes in the background.

Dayan said Indian governments have not learnt anything from 40 years of terror strikes. This is as professional a hit as I have seen in my life. I’ll bet an arm and a leg that this is supported by Pakistan’s ISI. Two eyes for an eye is the only response that terrorists and their supporters will ever understand.

Susan Walker interjected Does India really get this?

The Indian voter has failed to understand this simple truth unlike her Israeli counterpart. She continues to tolerate weak kneed governments. Instead she should be voting with her feet and throwing them out! Dayan responded.

"Ariel, almost five thousand people killed and wounded and they are still counting the casualties. This includes almost the entire former union cabinet. The Prime Minister of India assassinated. Billions of dollars’ worth of property destroyed in one terror strike. The economic aftermath may take months to establish.

What do you think the Indians will now do? Susan Walker prodded.

Ariel Dayan stared into the camera, smoke from burning aircraft billowing in the wind prominently behind him. He spoke dismissively.

"Susan, botnet attacks have in addition probably paralyzed communications especially that of government departments.

"The BJP has picked a complete non entity, Durga Vadera as the prime minister out of the blue. I grant you that she looks great on prime time. She also delivers a great speech that some insider has written. However, you can get dozens like her to stand in from Bollywood. You need someone to walk the talk.

Just indicates a bankruptcy of talent in the BJP government. I guess a scape goat is needed. A scapegoat without significant backing can easily be jettisoned without hassles after a while, when the going gets rougher!

Susan Walker interjected Aren’t you being harsh on Durga Vadera? Her constituency swears by her!

Nothing much can be expected from Durga Vadera by way of pro-active steps. A technologist turned accidental politician from the badlands of Uttar Pradesh. She is not what India needs right now.

A lot of hot air is being expelled by empty political speeches by BJP party spokespersons. The monsoon is on. She has a perfect excuse not to launch ground operations against Pakistan. Tanks will get bogged down off the roads. After a few weeks it will be business as usual.

Do you think Durga Vadera will look for a political resolution with Pakistan? The country is as usual being blamed for this attack Susan Walker asked.

Ariel Walker was at his dismissive best.

The Prime Ministers of both countries will perhaps meet at the UN Headquarters General Assembly session next month as if by accident. Vadera will ask for the perpetrators to be handed over to India. Pakistan will ask to see the evidence. The US will promise to intercede on behalf of both to settle the matter. After that there will be no forward movement until a new disaster takes place!

Susan Walker turned towards the cameras and said "The coming weeks will give a good indication to the world at large whether Ariel Sharon’s assessment of the prevailing situation in India is justified or not. A billion Indians will be keeping their fingers crossed. They will be hoping against hope that they have a default leader who has what it takes to get them out of this mess! For better or for worse Durga Vadera is in the eye of the storm.

Durga had watched the program impassively. She observed drily to Tompok Well, it seems that expectation levels from me are close to zero. We have nowhere to go but up!

The new Home Minister Ch. Tompok Singh from Manipur had till a year earlier looked after the same portfolio in the insurgency ridden State of Manipur. He had then been selected to be the Minister of State for the North East in the central government. The State of Manipur bordered Myanmar in India’s north east and had an endemic insurgency problem made worse by secretive support to the insurgents by China.

Tiny Manipur had more independent insurgent outfits than any place on earth. Ch. Tompok Singh a former Indian Police Service Superintendent had successfully fought them all for 15 years without a break. He had been awarded the President’s Police Medal for gallantry thrice, something that had never happened to any individual in the country, before he switched to full time politics.

Tompok was convinced that the answer to India’s insurgencies lay in a different brand of politics. Politics based on wider participation by common people and regional parties. This was currently not happening. He had listened patiently to the host of brief presentations at the Multi Agency Center that was the nodal point for the National Intelligence Grid.

The National Intelligence Grid had designated senior officers from a multiplicity of Indian agencies. This included the Intelligence Bureau (IB) responsible for internal intelligence, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) responsible for foreign intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

NATGRID also included the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Central Board of Direct taxes (CBDT), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

The Home Minister Ch. Tompok Singh said "I don’t care what else you have to do. Drop it! This investigation needs to be done first. We don’t seem to have a clue as to what happened except for the two men who fired anti-tank missiles from on top of the Mahipalpur flyover.

"The hit squads crippled three aircraft on the ground. Presumably there were at least two teams firing SAMs from different locations. We know now that the launch sites were well separated.

"There were at least two more people involved in the petrol bunk explosions. There were another three or four in the metro line attack. There also had to be a completely separate team with local participation organizing the hit on the cabinet meeting later!

Every one can’t just disappear without a trace. And this definitely does not include the guy who planned this and the explosives experts. Follow the money-Girish. After your inter action yesterday at the Radisson Hotel can you give everyone here a sense of what they need to focus on, at least to start with!

The intelligence grid had earlier helped to speed up investigations and pre-empted crimes by acting on suspicious activities of people under watch. Previous standalone data bases of each of these organizations had been largely integrated. Including private banks and transport companies’ data was still a work in progress. Vested interests with illegal money invested across a spectrum of financial agencies wanted to keep these out of NATGRID.

Girish a former police man with 20 years of investigating high profile cases on his dossier was extensively networked, at a personal level. This network extended across most of the states in India. He represented the National Investigation Agency, the lead agency in the just started investigation on the airport terror attacks.

Girish said "I will keep this short and follow up on email on the intranet. The Israeli security consultant Ariel Dayan was spot on when he made the remark of it being a professional hit to the BBC.

It’s a no brainer that the ISI is involved. This has all the hall marks of a synchronized military operation. The logistics of getting in the missile launchers and explosives and coordinating the training effort and reconnaissance is beyond any single terrorist organization! The planting of a bomb at the cabinet meeting when the place was under renovation smacks of an opportunistic military mind.

Nader the RAW representative interrupted Girish. "At the official level with the Pakistan Army top brass having to approve it I would say ‘No’. This is because the Army Chief needs to cover his butt. He needs to save embarrassing his government in case the CIA discovers a connection by officially not knowing about any collusion.

"There is definitely a strong element of actual collusion and facilitation at some lower level. This needs real executive power to reassure the Lashkar or whichever terror outfit was involved about logistics; perhaps a Colonel or Brigadier is involved.

I would not be surprised in the least bit if the facilitators are from amongst the 8-10 ISI officers who were forcibly eased out last year under American pressure. This was for their links to the Afghan insurgent groups.

Girish nodded agreement No issue with what you say. It would be helpful if you can get your people in Islamabad or Kabul to get some photographs of these ISI officers? I know it is a tall order.

I will see what we can do though it may take some time. There are a lot of existing photographs of some of them. These date from the time that they were celebrating booting the Soviets out of Afghanistan. However, appearances change over time Nader confirmed.

Girish said "Do what you can. We did a post mortem of the attack with the Home Secretary in a meeting at the Radisson Hotel. We had reps from the Delhi police and from the neighboring states of Haryana. We also included airport security, a special action team of the National Security Guard and the Telecom Regulatory Authority.

"There was a general consensus of opinion on a few issues that could help crack this investigation.

"Firstly, who so ever planned the attack had to be staying nearby for a prolonged period of some months. This had to be within 20-30 minutes travelling time of the airport for effective planning without wasting time.

"The majority were of the opinion that security outside Delhi was definitely more lax than in the center. They felt strongly that locations on the outskirts of Gurgaon biased towards Delhi were the best bets to establish a hide out or a base for operations.

Secondly, the sheer simplicity of the plan, standalone actions by small hit teams but yet synergistic nature of the different actions indicates a military mind behind this attack. This includes targeting flying aircraft, static aircraft, the metro, the Radisson Hotel and the petrol bunks.

Nader interrupted him The subsequent attack on the cabinet meeting was separately coordinated by the same guy. The training requirements and logistics of assembling high grade explosives and missile systems are formidable. A trained mind with years of practical combat exposure could only have set this up. He seems to have run two separate operations in parallel with himself as the sole interface.

Girish nodded and continued "Thirdly and perhaps most significantly is that our best chance to pick up the trail is to concentrate on the financial transactions. A great deal of cash would have been required and I’m willing to bet that almost all of it was counterfeit.

Identity creation that defies scrutiny required for at least one or two of them to operate out in the open would suggest that the plan has been in the works for over a couple of years? As the Home Minister has suggested let’s try and follow the money.

Nader added "There will be a record somewhere to enable this set up. Perhaps a bank account opened within fifteen kilometers of the airport close to where the planner stayed? It may be a driving license or a passport obtained through fraud? A hotel or guest house booking or bill paid through a credit card could be a lead?

In case of an assumed Indian identity an income tax permanent account number would come into play. If property has been purchased as a hide out for the long term, it could come under tax scrutiny. A legitimate income tax filing number would be a definite asset in such a case.

Chapter 2

Fort Meade

The Lashkar e Taiba chief Sufa Mohammed who had personally vetted the individuals in the terror teams sent to function under Brigadier Syed Ali in India made just one mistake. The mistake was, however, of a magnitude that even raw operatives were drilled to avoid. He was in a hurry to find out details of the Delhi strike which had actually become irrelevant since it was a done deal. Sufa Mohammed decided to use a mobile phone for an update on Syed Ali. He did not, however, completely ignore trade craft. In his own place, he sent a trusted aide Ilyas Ahmed 30 kilometers south of Lahore. The latter placed the call to Bangkok at 8 PM.

The phone at the Bangkok end rang for 15 seconds before Ilyas Ahmed broke the connection. Exactly one minute later the number called him back and disconnected after four rings. Another thirty seconds later the number called again and disconnected after three rings. There seemed nothing unusual about the calls. The third time around when the phone rang he spoke after the second ring.

Did our guest arrive at the airport?

Yes but he was late and not in time for dinner! was the answer from Bangkok before the line was disconnected.

The National Security Agency located inside an Army base at Fort Meade, Maryland, is the United States intelligence community’s ears around the world. It picks up millions of conversations.

Conversations picked up ranged from coded military chats at PLA bases in the Tibet Autonomous Region to the Russian Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea and troop concentrations opposite Ukraine. Hawala or illegal currency traders in Mumbai, ransom seekers for hostages from the Islamic State, Taliban and Al Qaeda regional networks are also routinely gathered in the sweep.

The short conversation would not have normally raised any alarm bells at the headquarters of the super-secret National Security Agency.

The US Ambassador had, however, got killed in Delhi. Things were not normal at all.

Vice Admiral J. Walter McNeil, the agency’s director and former intelligence head for the Joint Staff known was known as DIRNSA. He was as proactive an electronic spy master as any other prior to him in the history of the organization. McNeil had three flat screen TVs fitted on his office wall. These beamed mute nonstop channels that were flipped according to an algorithm selected by him.

McNeil was known to redirect eavesdropping analysis within seconds of breaking stories. Many times this was purely on instinct. This instinct was honed by decades of experience even without further collaboration of the accuracy of these stories.

Al Qaeda or Lashkar e Taiba, probably the latter, maybe with Islamic State funding and definitely ISI oversight! he declared minutes after the Indian Prime Minister’s plane was shot down.

The call from the Joint Chief of Staff half an hour later set the cat amongst the pigeons at NSA.

Walter, Joe Stone here. This is just to confirm that Gerald Johnson our Ambassador to India is dead. His aircraft was struck by a surface to air missile while landing into Delhi and crashed. He was a friend of the President. No one fucks around doing this to a crony of the president of the US. What POTUS wants he gets. See what you can do to bail out the Indians on this one. They are in a complete mess. The CIA is already on the ball!

Deputy Director Patricia ‘Ferret’ Holmes’ ability to conjure up what if scenarios was legendary. When the heat was on and quick results were needed she invariably produced workable solutions. She now focused the NSA effort on the Eastern border of Pakistan with her observation.

"The Admiral is probably right! With his track record I wouldn’t like to bet against his initial gut reaction. Whoever planned this in the Lashkar shura council will want a