No ordinary person
PEOPLE LIKE THEM
| But N N D Dubey is not like people like us "" this father of two has stared death in the face and faces a lifetime of pain today. But he'd do his duty again, he says, and his only regret now is that with his bad leg and arm, he can only do desk jobs in the Border Security Force, away from the action he loves. Here's his story. |
| It was 3.30 in the morning. The eight BSF men, led by Dubey, had searched the first two floors of a house in Srinagar's crowded Nurbagh area. They only found frightened women and children, whom they hustled into one room. |
| On the second floor, they found an empty room with a full-length mirror. Their informer Nissar pointed quietly towards the mirror and the eight men instantly fired their weapons, shattering it to reveal the hideout behind it. The answering fusillade of grenades and bullets killed one, injured five and cut off two men from the rest of the party. |
| The tremendous burst of firepower convinced them that this was indeed the hideout of Ghazi Baba, the dreaded chief of Jaish E Mohammad, who masterminded the attack on the Parliament in Delhi. |
| Dubey was hit, how many times and where, he didn't know, but kept firing. "Though the entire fight took only about ten seconds, it seemed like a lifetime. Suddenly, my right arm went dead, my rifle fell down. If the terrorists had emerged from their hideout at that time, I'd have been dead," Dubey recounted. Bleeding profusely, he crawled downstairs. "I thought I may not be able to survive that day," said he, "but never lost my will to live!" |
| In hospital, doctors feared they might have to amputate Dubey's arm. Another bullet lodged in his back was impossible to remove, being too close to vital nerves. A third burst of bullets would have ripped his chest apart - "but I was actually saved by the medal on my breast "" just like in HIndi films," said he grinning boyishly. |
| Two operations and four and a half months later, Dubey still can't use his arm. And the bullet in his back is still there, causing him unbearable pain in his leg, which doctors have left to nature to heal. |
| But more than these ever-present painful reminders of BSF's most successful counter-insurgency operation, he remembers the sheer adrenalin rush of the chase. "We were playing badminton on the afternoon of August 28, 2003, when we were called to interrogate a Pakistani militant who eventually showed us his hideout. From his landlord we learnt about Nissar, the mason from Anantnag who built secret chambers for Jaish militants to hide in. He told us about the other hideout he'd made in Srinagar," said he. |
| Radio interceptions had already indicated that Ghazi Baba lived in the city, and Dubey suspected that the hideout Nissar had made might be where Ghazi Baba was hiding. The rest is history. |
| "We all knew that being in counter-insurgency operations was risky, that everyday when we went out of our homes, we ran the risk of not returning," said he, "the price I paid for Ghazi Baba's head is that I can't run, I can't write, I face a lifetime of pain!" But then, he adds, "but at least I'm alive! And perhaps, given another chance, I'd do it again," he said, pausing with a smile, "perhaps that's why I get so many abuses from my wife!" |