Had Met Pak Prez On Board

By: Kamal Baruah

Born in Delhi in 1943, his family moved to Pakistan in 1947 after partition. He served in Indo-Pak War 1965 as Company Commander and rose to the top Military job in 1998 as Chief of Army Staff after seizing power in a bloodless Military Coup 1999 in Islamabad while deposing PM Nawaz Sharif and finally installed himself as the Head of Government and declared as President in 2001. As a soldier, he fought against India, saw the loss of East Pakistan in 1971 and got pained after India’s upper hand position in Siachen Glacier. Parvez Musharraf breathed his last in Dubai while living in self-exile. The life of former dictator moved onwith full of extreme adventurism.

It has started since hijacking of IC 814 in 1999 under General Musharraf’s watch with fingerprints of ISI on the operation with the release of three dreaded terrorists linked with Mujahedeen and JeM. They are Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Masood Azhar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. Masood launched deadly attacks on the Indian Parliament 2001, Mumbai Terror 2008 and Pathankot Airbase Attack 2016. General Musharraf is always remembered by most for his 1999 Kargil Adventurism. The series of Pak based terror attack led to a massive military standoff “Operation Parakram 2001-2002”, which came close to war.

Army Man changed his shoulder stripes to wannabe statesman, while sabotaging the most innovative peace initiative in the history of Indo-Pak relation. After failing Agra Summit 2001 on J&K, President called for ceasefire along the LoC during UNGA meeting to ease hostilities across border and that marked the beginning of composite dialogue process with PM Vajpayee during 12^th SAARC Summit 2004 in Islamabad. He agreed with then PM Manmohan Singh in 2006 to set up 4 point peace formula on Kashmir.

On the other world, Dictator backed the US-led military campaign (2001-2002) to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, pledging to combat extremism. He had little choice but to enter an alliance with the US Global War on terror led by Prez George Bush after the 9/11 attacks on Twin Tower. However, he played a dual game by engaging Taliban for guerrilla warfare. Musharraf is reckoned to be the most dangerous Army Chief spanning over a decade while India witnessing his transition from Four-Star General to Military Dictator to wannabe Statesman.

India had to put its troops on high alert along the LoC as relations with Pakistan had deteriorated sharply over cross-border firing. Being an Air Warrior on those times, we came across such massive combat-readiness most of the time. Artillery shelling from Pakistani Rangers’ created mayhem at LoC. They opened fire to give the terrorists cover fire to infiltrate into J&K. Villagers living in the border abandoned themselves to despair while soldiers living in bunkers are motivated to fight for the nation, we guarded the nation’s skies then.

It was amazed to hear enemy’s Flyer Talks of flying F16 and ATC so well but those were harrowing task in complex communication setup at Ops Room. Yet we interpreted those phonetic alphabet, phraseology and clearance at ease. It was 1100 hours Zulu time, visibility 6/6. The skyline of Karachi could be seen at a distance from our location. Suddenly, there was the noise of chopper. We were scared. It was the enemy flying drone, it hovering over the top for border surveillance. It flew away and left behind an airborne imagery.

Meanwhile, the enemy ATC gave clearance 4 Fighter Jets of F16 to escort one Transport C-130. They were all on. Suddenly my HF Receiver was on and there was a clear and precise voice “Pakistan – Air Force One”. (Aircraft of Pakistan President) I had just heard something shocking and started asking myself. Did I hear it right? I was worried and pressed the record button on the receiver instantly. It went on again “crash-landed, Pakistan Air Force One, crash-landed”. The flying came to a grinding halt and SAR (search and rescue) activated for emergency evacuation.

The troops felt like winning a war after I caught President on board the flight. Only a few had the luck to witness such a heroic performance in a life-time. I soon realized that I could record the repetition of the second line at least of that radio telephony else I would have been severely reprimanded by my superiors. Surveillance was o at other levels too. I instantly reported the matter to higher authority via satellite.

General Pervez Musharraf was then the President cum Military Head of Pakistan. We were in high suspense. We were miles and miles away from that crash. After half an hour, the runway became operational again. It turned out; this was a mock drill at Keti Bandar near Karachi. We almost caught a plane crashed with President on board for a while at least. (The author is a former air-warrior & can be reached at kamal.baruah@yahoo.com)