True or False?

A message was intercepted by RAW last night and the code was broken down to a paragraph which seemed to be normal English, but had several meanings to it.

It read, “Once upon a time, there was the son of Marichi who married the eight daughters of Daksha. His wedding bed was made of white stones, sprayed with desert sand. On the night of the wedding, when the drums of the feast were loudest, Zulaji emerged in the spaces between the empty forts.”

Every delegate had a different opinion to this message, but everybody agreed to the fact that there was a possibility of a Pakistani invasion. The question remained as to where, when, how and why?

While everyone was busy thinking about the message, the reporter personally felt that this could have been an incorrect message purposely sent to divert us from catching the original message creating a ruckus.

The Additional Secretary of RAW was determined on finding the location and time of the attack and related the “wedding” in the message to some pompous event happening in India occupied Kashmir. Although he did give a thought to the fact that it could be a false alarm, everybody concluded that we must create a guise that RAW is into the investigation, while actually working covertly on another operation. In spite of the decision, the whole of today’s session was dedicated to decrypting the message.

The Joint Secretary RAW clearly believed that this could be a clever attempt of ISI to divert the focus of RAW from something extraordinary and that the message was vague. Pakistan having willingly given parts of Kashmir to India in past, deciphering the message seemed to be a waste of time.

Director General of Security looked at the complete situation from historical point of view. He related Zulaji to the Turkish invasions on India and concluded that Pakistan has taken inspiration from the Turkish emperor to take over Pakistan. He also brought the reference of relation between Pakistan and China to be of grave concern.

The Admin General Secretary put forth his opinion that the message could not be taken as the whole truth, but neglecting it would be compromising on the security of Kashmir which is unaffordable.

Joint Secretary-Area III pointed out that the eight daughters could be the territory of the eight rivers of Brahmaputra, and marriage could be a meeting. The Special Joint Secretary-ETD agreed that the forces could be distracted while the actual attack could create much more damage elsewhere. The Joint Secretary-Area IV pointed at the Pakistani incursion and entry from Karakoram pass or Aksaichin. Considering the Director General of Security’s point, he stressed on the Turkish invasion from the Jhelum valley through National Highway 1.

It was also discussed that if there was supposed to be Chinese involvement in the complete attack, RAW should have intercepted a message reply from China to ISI as well. Due to the absence of a message from China’s end, the delegates did not expect its involvement in the complete conspiracy at all. But to make sure that there were no loose ends, everybody established that we needed human networks and underground operations to keep a check on the Chinese activities.

Now, while the delegates assumed that ISI had no idea that the message was intercepted, the reporter believes that there could be a possibility that the complete code was a spoof message from ISI to distract RAW.

At the end of the session, the correct decrypted code was that Pakistan will be attacking Kargil when India will be involved with China on the North-Eastern front.

As the whole session was dedicated to decoding the message and figuring out the possibilities to prevent war on dual fronts, the reporter believes that heed must be given to the fact that the actual time and location of the attacks could be different from that mentioned in the message. In conclusion ,though the message could be false, compromising on security when Pakistan and China are involved would be a reckless decision. Required measures should be taken on both war fronts to keep the locals and the land safe.

(edited by Vaishnavi Deepak)