Pinaka

By Jaidev Jamwal

This story was written in 2013-2014 before ‘surgical strike’ became a popular term in certain circles. We knew that Indian army raided Pakistani positions across Line of Control every now and then, but there were hardly any written accounts of any such missions. This story was written as a dramatized version of such a raid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jaidev Jamwal
• Release date: Sep 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005930394

Jaidev Jamwal

Writer is a military enthusiast, likes photography, trekking and writing.

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Pinaka

INTRODUCTION

This story was written in 2013-2014 before ‘surgical strike’ became a popular term in certain circles. We knew that Indian army raided Pakistani positions across Line of Control, but there were hardly any written accounts of any such missions. This story was written as a dramatised version of such a raid.

You can read a few more such stories on my website http://jjamwal.in

Kaalkut.https://jjamwal.in/yayavar/kaalkut-military-thriller-story-index-post/

Written in 2020-21. It is a somewhat realistic two-front war scenario.

Flames and Arrowshttps://jjamwal.in/yayavar/war-scenario/

Written in 2010-11. I started writing it for fun on Bharat Rakshak defence forum as a possible nuclear war scenario

CHAPTER 1

That long night, I found myself sitting under a rocky ledge on a mountain trying to protect myself from the rainstorm in progress. Above me were dark clouds which had completely covered the night sky and 2 meters in front of me was a long, almost clean fall to a small mountain stream, 400 meters or so below. That stream flowed down to Indian territory about 3 kilometres from my position as the crow flies. Every few minutes, I tried to move my neck and squint in the general direction of the border hoping to catch a glimpse of lights on border fencing.

All I could see were flashes of thunder in the distance which shadowed massive mountain peaks all around us. It was supposed to be a full moon night 3 days later, but the clouds covered every inch of the night sky. The mountain on which we were, went on for another 600 meters above from our location. But we were not here as mountaineers to climb it. The temperature was just marginally above freezing point but felt like the blood in my body had frozen over already. I could neither see nor feel my fingers but I was sure that they must be an odd shade of blue by now, even under the high-quality thermal gloves.

The rain was falling as if someone was pouring the water down by buckets and the ledge barely provided any shelter against the downpour. I was careless with my waterproof parka. Apparently, it’s good at keeping its wearer dry only if the buttons and zips are all tightly fastened, which I had neglected to. At one time earlier, I was sweating because of the effort of walking on the mountain, and a few minutes later I was shivering because of the cold. Some quantity of ice-cold water seeped through the folds of my clothing down to my spine and I assure you, it isn’t a pleasant feeling.

My feet were still dry and comparatively warm because of those special shoes and socks, but a large part of my combat trousers was soaking wet. Every few minutes a strong cold gust of winds blew in my direction, bringing a bucketful of icy rain along with it. Couldn’t even get up to piss without getting wet as a fish or worse, tumbling down the mountain into the swollen stream below. Couldn’t even sleep even if I wanted to. Certainly not a nice feeling at all.

To make it worse, I couldn’t talk to anyone else. I didn’t know what the rest of men in my team are doing. We were sitting too widely spread apart to hold a proper conversation. Talking loudly or even normally was out of the question for two reasons. First, the rainstorm was too loud. Second, we were on a covert operation. So talking loudly, lighting a match or lighter, checking mobile phone or any other activity that may reveal our presence was not allowed. Talking on radio was also prohibited unless absolutely necessary, as we had to observe complete radio silence. Only the Major leading our party could speak, that too only when absolutely required. It’s not that he needed to shepherd us around anyway as we were all pretty well trained, or at least I like to think so. We had left our base at 18:45 and were supposed to be on our objective by now. But this rainstorm came out of nowhere and forced us to take shelter right on the face of this mountain. Some of us wanted to press on, but the Major who was a veteran of many such missions ordered us to stop and I agreed with his decision.