There was hectic activity in Army HQ, unusual for a late Tuesday afternoon. The Chief’s staff officer sprinted down the corridor lined with portraits of former generals and rushed into the Chief’s room, barely acknowledging the guard’s salute on the way.
“Five soldiers killed in an ambush on the LoC in Poonch, sir,” he said out of breath.
The Chief look up and peered over his spectacles, jaws slackened but poker faced as ever.
“Has it been denied?”
“Yes, sir,” said the officer. “And that’s not all. The Defense Minister has said they were terrorists in army uniforms,” he added, gritting his teeth.
The Chief let out a curse.
“We should retaliate, sir. This time we should hit not just across the LOC but across the International border as well. The XIV strike corps can be mobilized at a moments notice and moved to Chamba…”
“Hold your horses, Zack. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the Chief interrupted.
“If not now then when sir? How long must we wait and watch?” the officer cried incredulously.
The Chief sighed and looked away, peering out of the window to avoid eye contact. “You know I can’t authorize that, Zak. Not under these circumstances,” he said softly.
“When Parliament was attacked, we were told now is not the time. Then, in 2008, bomb blasts rocked India cities but we were told to hold our horses…”
“Zak, calm down…”
“Ok sir, I am trying. And then 26/11 happened: an entire city brought to its knees by armed gun-men, the very symbols of a nation’s vitality under attack with the entire experience getting ‘livestreamed’ into the millions of homes to inflame public opinion. Yet, the boys ordered to say put in their barracks against all human instinct for retribution. How long will this go on, sir? There are limits to how low the morale can plunge..” The staff officer banged his fist on the Chief’s mahogany desk.
He was losing coherence now as his rage boiled over. The Chief stared back impassively, his deafening silence dousing the flames of anger raging through his staff officer. It had always ended like this.
The muezzin’s call to the faithful from the nearby Lal Masjid punctuated the awkward silence. General Kayani got up, walked over and tapped General Zaheer-ul-Islam’s shoulders. “We are up against a highly implacable foe, my friend. One that simply refuses to retaliate, however grave the provocation but we musn’t allow that to erode our morale,” said General Kayani. “They will be more testing periods ahead but eventually we’ll prevail and India will retaliate, permitting us to move troops back to the eastern front, Inshallah. Meanwhile, we’ll just have to grin and bear this thankless war on our western borders at the behest of our American patrons, I’m afraid,”
“Yes, sir,” said Letiuenant General Zaheer-ul-Isam, as he smartly saluted, turned and made his way out of the chief’s office in Army GHQ in Islamabad.