He had his back supported with
carbon soot covered fiberglass wall of the igloo. Besides him his men were busy
in different activities: some were busy listening to the radio, a few resorted
to chattering around and others had closed their eyes in an effort to induce
sleep.
Shahid gazed at the calendar hanging on the opposite wall. It informed the
viewer- December. The young Lieutenant was spending his fifth month on the roof
of world. Before arriving at the place, he had imagined it to be a cold hell-no
wonder it was-but with the advent of time his adaptability instinct carved the
way out for him. Every day he witnessed the marvels, beauty and splendor of
nature. He adored the endless snow carpeted landscape, spread beyond his vision.
Shahid was sunk deep in his thoughts when something clattered besides him. He
thought it was one of his troops dropping a utensil somewhere. The sound
repeated. It was the field phone. The commander picked it up gently.
“Hello?” ; He spoke in to the olive green receiver
“This is Major Jamshed”; the company commander said soberly
“Sir…”
“I want you to hold a Qawali at Tekri No 5”
“Right sir…”
And then the company commander continued with details of the assigned task,
though in Morse code, in order to conserve security. At the end of the call,
excitement reflected Shahid’s face. A while later the Morse had been decoded.
Silence prevailed in the igloo, thousands of feet above the sea level, even
higher than the clouds!
“Boys listen we have got work to do”; addressed Shahid while looking at his
watch. It clocked 1700hrs. Outside it was dark. A wind storm had been forecasted
for a few hours later-an ideal setting to strike the enemy. Then in a fluent
stream of words, Shahid explained the scenario to his troops.
***
Turn by turn they came out of the white dome. Shahid on stepping outside, as
usual, stopped for a while, slipped out his tongue and let a snowflake land on
it. A smile drifted on his face. He enjoyed the cold gist of the act and stepped
aside the igloo’s door to let the others come out.
It had now been five hours that they were on their way to the designated tekri.
They finally stopped behind a huddle of brown rocks, large enough to provide
them with cover and a place to shed of the exhaustion of difficult traversing.
Stealth was the key to success until now. The soldiers remained steady and
almost motionless to avoid any rustle or movement which could lead towards them
being compromised, and consequently the foiling up of entire operation.
Galactic winds of the Siachen glacier shrilled around. They pierced through the
heavily clothed bodies of this body of undaunted men. The troops were, as per
the plan, waiting for darkness to fall, so that they could strike the enemy
unaware-a component of their strategy. A trying wait of two hours finally
announced the hour of dignity!
As Crixus said, “In peace sons bury their fathers but in wars fathers bury their
sons”.
***
The reserve and flanking parties as per the plan deployed around the perimeter
of the enemy post. Naib Subedar Sher Muhammad, the second-in-command of the
entire operation, was not very happy for staying in the auxiliary party; an
element of jealousy certainly buzzed in his heart for the Lieutenant. Shahid
along with his main action party advanced towards the enemy establishment. Then
the mountains of Siachen rumbled, the rocks trembled and the wind shrieked with
terror!
“Nara-i-Takbeer”, Lieutenant Shahid roared
“Allah-o-Akbar”, His troops replied
All hell was unleashed on the enemy deployments-guns breathed fire. The
adversary was startled for a while. In a jiffy, a couple of their igloos had
been blown up to smithereens. Then someone out of them fired the illumination
rounds and the whole are lit up in a maroon-purple shade. Enemy machine guns
blazed with fury. The strikers were pinned down, as expected.
Shahid and his men crawled for the machine gunner nests. Grenades were hurled
inside the enemy entrenchments. A bullet whizzed and the soldier lying near
Shahid moaned with pain.
“Siddiq!”; Yelled the commander
As the operation proceeded enemy resistance lowered, but at a heavy cost. Half
of Shahid’s troops had been pinned down. Suddenly the Lieutenant felt as if
someone had drilled a red-hot piece of metal in his leg. In the light of the
illumination rounds he could see blood oozing out of his leg and being absorbed
by the white snow below. Pain tried to overwhelm the young soul, but he refused
submission!
One of the enemy machine gun bunkers was resisting the attack severely; rest all
the nests had been silenced. Shahid slowly dragged towards the point of
disturbance. Nearby he saw his rocket launcher man lying down and bleeding.
Shahid himself was experiencing drowsiness due to the loss of blood from his
wound. Both the men were lying right in the line of fire.
The Lieutenant spoke in the intercom in a weak yet determined voice; “Subedar
Sahab mission mubarik ho aap ko”.
With the speed of lightning, Shahid grabbed the rocket launcher, kneeled and
pressed the trigger. Two blasts, separated by a short crackle of bullets,
echoed. Shahid saw the bunker blowing to bits and he fell down with his chest
riddled with pieces of lead.
Fresh snow had started to fall. The young soul smiled like always. He slid out
his tongue and felt the snowflakes falling down on it. In the faint light of a
flare he could see the flakes gliding down. Shahid closed his eyes and recited
the Kalma in a whisper. There was absolute silence!