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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