After bagging great embarrassment from all over the world,
on political and diplomatic fronts the Modi Sarkar had a very little face to
show at home where they promised its public to punish Pakistan for the latter’s
so-called aggression and terrorist activities. The Uri drama was staged to
‘punish’ Pakistan; however smart Modi lost the surprise for his surgical strikes.
The muck didn’t stop here rather it was followed by another defeat when they
couldn’t get assurances about keeping their attacks local and restricted. The
war mongering Indian media stooped extremely low to create war hysteria and
making their public mad but at the end of the day they had nothing but
humiliation in their sack.
The Indian PM has now taken another turn and has started
threatening Pakistan to review Indus Water Treaty by saying on record that, “water and
blood can’t flow at the same time”.
Here in the Subcontinent, the Indians are least pushed about
the hovering conflict clouds and rapidly building dam after the dam. Out of 13
dams or hydroelectric projects, under construction in Indian occupied Kashmir,
seven are on River Chenab; one is on Jhelum and one on the Indus. The seasoned
and mature forecasters from the world over are showing lost sleep for the
future wars, those will be fought over ‘blue gold’, as thirsty people,
opportunistic politicians and powerful corporations, battle for diminishing
resources. No one would have ever given a serious thought to it but
unfortunately a series of reports from intelligence agencies and research
groups indicate that the prospect of a water war is becoming increasingly
probable. The Indian environmental scientist Sunita Narain, soon after
receiving her 2005 Stockholm Water Prize Award said, “I am not here as a
pessimist saying that India is doomed and that water wars are going to happen,
and we are going to destroy ourselves. I am saying very clearly that if India
continues on this route, yes there will be water wars…and we will become more
and more crippled in our growth.”
Keeping Indian dirty intentions and insanity in mind, the
Chapter sixteen of my novel ‘The Cornered Rogue” is purely based on the water
war theory. My point of view is that if the freedom lover Kashmiris can raise
Pakistani flag on their roofs then they can do anything for their love. I pray
that my fiction remains a fiction but if the Indians ever think of choking the
water share of Pakistan that will surely be a disastrous day. I can’t say that
what will happen but I am sure of one thing that whatever will happen will not
be good for any party; all the rivers will start flowing the natural way and no
one will have any control on any of the rivers.
Here are the excerpts from my book:
“It was mid month of August 2012 and the snow on the
Himalayan ranges had already melted quite enough while the Monsoon in the upper
Pakistan and Kashmir was also on its prime, there was high flood in the rivers.
Generally the Maghliar Dam site area would remain under dark, it was on that
chilling and cold night that the main building and dam site had security lights
left on. After the threat given by the Kashmiri militants outfit Hizbul Jihad
the Indian government had already tightened the security at all the dams and
Hydel project sites as they were not taking any chance. Maghliar Dam being a
giant project was enjoying preference. It was a late hour of the night.
Security posts were being manned by the soldiers from Indian Army, who would
talk to each other loudly to stay alert and awake. Few of them were patrolling
the passages allotted to them as the beats. One of the patrols near the main
building felt something moving in the main machine room area. The patrol leader
who was an NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) challenged the stranger in dark and
suddenly an AK-47’s burst took the patrol leader off-guard. While he was gunned
down the others immediately hit for the ground and took cover of anything
available in the near vicinity. Their leader had gone so some other patrol
member shouted to fire back and take on the aggressors. Everyone was now aware
of the identity of the assailants. The jittery and trigger happy soldiers,
while spraying bullets around, wildly shouted for reinforcements and suddenly
the detachments placed on the posts also left their places and ran to help
their comrades. The exchange of fire was carried out for almost forty minutes
until someone from the soldiers shouted to hold fire, as he suddenly realised
that since the last few minutes it was all quiet from the adversary.
A careful search was started. The team found their two
soldiers including the NCO dead but no wounded. The militants left behind
nothing except few 7.62 mm calibre live rounds which someone probably dropped
while withdrawing from the scene or some empty cases of the same calibre. The
troops started consolidating the bits and bobs which took them the last few
hours of the night.
By first light the area was cleaned up by the rescue teams
who reached at the call. The commanding officer of the Rajputana Rifles that
provided the security elements for the Maghliar Dam was also there. Just before
the sunrise when search of the area was being carried out suddenly a huge
explosion caught everyone off guard. People living miles away must have heard
that blast because people at the dam site took no time to spot the dense smoke
speedily rising over Dam’s spillway area. The great growl of forcefully
detained millions of cusecs of water which suddenly had no obstruction in the
way could be heard from miles away. The people present at the site had no other
choice except to run for the lives without wasting any time since the area was
soon expected to be swept away by the devastated water reservoir.
The militants managed to draw their attention away from the
main spillway and succeeded in planting the heavy explosive in tunnel beneath
the spillway. The Maghliar Dam was breathing its last while still in its
infancy. Those who were living along the River Chenab banks trusted more in
what Hizbul Jihad threatened than what the Indians said to calm their nerves.
No wonder, most of them had already abandoned their dwellings. It was neither a
pleasant morning for the Indians or for the Pakistanis.
The thunderous water of Chenab was speeding through
different cities, towns and villages on the banks of river. It was about eight
hours away from the Nadala Headworks but preparations to avoid getting caught
unaware were already being made. The Pakistan Army choppers were hovering over
river Chenab in that area around Nadala and were vigilant to rescue those who
were in need of being lifted. The units in the Sialkot garrison were being kept
on a two hours notice to move out for flood relief duties. The gates at the
headworks, to some extent, were opened to avoid sustaining a sudden pressure by
the additional quantity of water which was streaming down at a frightening
speed. On the other hand the Maghliar Dam site was presenting a very gloomy and
a devastating picture of the area. The furious current of aggressive water
swept away the main dam site and turbine hall. Water roaring down from the area
once known as spillway was noising thunderously. It could conveniently be
picked as a scene from the block buster ‘2012’. Though it was a sabotage
activity, nonetheless the Indians otherwise had a dam failure record. Apart
from the Maghliar tragedy, at least nine Indian dams collapsed and 43.38 meter
high Jaswant Sagar Dam which collapsed in July 2007 was the latest one. Had
Hizbul Jihad not warned, the death toll would have been in thousands which was
now less than a hundred. A wild thought: What would have happened if the
militants had destroyed it quietly? Gives one a quiver with goose pimples! In
that case, the death rate would have been the same as it was in the failure of
Banqiao dam of China which collapsed in August 1975, causing a 10 km wide and
up to 23 ft high tide. It gulped 26,000 lives, later those who died of
subsequent epidemics or famine were about 145,000.
There were threatening notes by Indians to teach Pakistan a
lesson. The latter was quite sure that the former would definitely try to find
an opportunity for a quest where Pakistan would be made to pay for the crime
that it had never committed. However knowing well that being apologetic to the
Indians would have meant facing more music, the Pakistani foreign office responded
to the Indian threat in a similar symphony. By the same evening the
international media covered the disaster extensively. The air ways were choked
with the news, footages of the catastrophe. The western newspapers published
the blow as a leading story with interesting headings like; The Chenab fallen
back to Pakistan, The day the dam broke, Chenab: Coming Home, Pakistan leads
Indo-Pak water polo by 1-0 and many such sensational headlines.
Above all the Indian government released the flood water in
River Ravi, Sutlej and the long abandoned River Bias. The sis-frontier
governmental quarters were taken aback as they were unprepared for an
unpredictable and unprecedented catastrophic calamity. Within a week millions
of Pakistanis from most of the provinces were out in the open, without shelter
and under the scorching sun. A vast area on the banks of these rivers including
some major and historical cities of Punjab and Sindh provinces were drowned.
The inopportune people, who didn’t recover even from the 2010’s devastating
floods, had to leave behind their lifetime assets and valuable belongings in
panic when they had to run for their lives. The television channels and
newspapers were showing a very gloomy, morbid picture. Unfortunate for a
country that was already in crisis and was fighting a war on many fronts and
now Mother Nature had also stood against Pakistanis. While the Armed Forces,
without wasting any time, came out for the salvage operations, the government
appealed to the international body for aid on humanitarian grounds.”
Let’s pray that God bless our enemy with sanity.
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