What Was the ‘Operation Whitewash’ by RAW?

India has one of the top-most strongest army in the world because of our devoted soldiers, their high-fighting spirits and their love for the country. There are many operations and fights that seem to be impossible, but our soldiers make them possible. 

One such operation was the “Operation Whitewash” that happened in 2012 at the Jawahar Tunnel in Kashmir. The operation that killed around 129 Pakistani Army soldiers near the Gayari District of Kashmir. But was it planned or was it just a rapid decision? Let’s find out.

The Story Behind Operation Whitewash 

The story starts in 2009, Jawahar Tunnel was closed as the heavy snow hit the grounds of Kashmir. As the tunnel was the only way to cross the area, the BRO (Border Roads Organization was asked to remove the snow on immediate action. The DRDO’s Laser Science also came to fasten the task.

When the in-charge R&AW officer was supervising the task, he saw them using LASTEC’s tetra vehicles to remove the snow along with the giant artillery gun with the name printed on the gun as KALI (Kilo Ampere Linear Injector). The officer got conscious as he never saw such a powerful device and started asking questions on how it performs. KALI is an artillery gun-like device that creates small avalanches that helps them remove the snow. 

But the officer was having something else in their mind after watching KALI to use it as a weapon against by creating small avalanches towards them. 

As soon as the officer came to Delhi from Kashmir, he told his seniors about the gun and his alternate use in the military. Unfortunately, his seniors rejected the idea but the officers were unwilling to give up. After conducting research with LASTEC and SAS, he came up with a precise presentation to propose to the R&AW Chief Sanjeev Tripathi. 

The Success of “Operation Whitewash” 

After reading the presentation by the R&AW officer, Chief Sanjeev Tripathi approved the technique. He talks to the former National Security Advisor M.K Narayan as he and Sanjeev were good friends at that time that helped in the approval of the technique in no time. Later, the project got the approval by the Prime Minister of India to which Narayan was the head of execution. 

After the approval and appointment of M.K Narayan, the project went at its speed and selection of the candidates took place. The project got its name “Operation Whitewash”. Regular visits to the 20,000 feet Army base of the Indian Army in Siachen took place. The main objective to choose Siachen army base was that the Northern Light Infantry Headquarters was clearly visible. 

The Final Countdown 

The officers start mapping the area of the target to ensure that the avalanche covers the entire area and gets buried under snow. It was important that Pakistan did not get any evidence of the attack. Everything was on the paper including the trigger points. But there were many challenges to execute the mission like moving KALI- a 10 tons heavy machine gun with a generator to power to a height of 20000 feet. And the second challenge was that if KALI was used on ground, the vibrations and sound emerging from it could collapse the snow and kill the Indian officers. They also had to take care of the polarization. 

And therefore, scientists decide to use KALI from the air platform for which the RAW’s Aviation Research wing and two giant plane il-76 brough in action. 

Both the planes got in action at the ARC airbase in the Callicut with a KALI 50000w laser inside it. This KAlI was much more powerful than the KALI gun that the R&AW officer saw in Kashmir. 

The two il-76 planes with KALI in them came to Sarsawa air force station with Indian Air Force Guards protecting them 24*7. There was an observation team at the Siachen Post who were getting special training for higher altitude. 

The Day- Operation Whitewash 

It was the final countdown for the operation- April 7, 2012. The time for executing the operation was 12:00 PM as most of the avalanches in Siachen occur in the afternoon only. Problems like polarization and high-precision shooting were still something that BARC (BHABHA Atomic Research Center) had to handle. 

 According to the scientist in-charge, the operation must take place in the morning or evening to get rid of all the technical problems. SO as per BARC, the time of the operation changed to April 7 at 4:00 in the morning.  

The morning of 7th April, both the il-76 planes with Kali take off from Sarwasa to take their coordinates  in Siachen bae. Along them, an Airborne Early Warning and Control System of IAF (AEWACS) with an il-78 plane for refilling took their back position on the route. Moreover, the army sent 7 fighter jets and two Sukhoi fighter jets to scan the area around the plane il-76 at 2:00 till the avalanche. 

After confirming the trigger points from the satellite data reception center and 3D visualization center, the scientists and officers from RAW and NSA started communicating to know the progress of the operation and revert it back to the Information Project, NSA MK Narayan. 

Soon when the clock marked 4:00 in the morning, the KALI in il-76 started shooting lasers with 100% precision at chosen points from a height of 30,000 feet. And around 5:40 in the morning, the officers heard the sound of an avalanche at Pakistan’s  Northern Light Infantry headquarters with a speed of 3000 kilometers per hour. 

The Effect of Avalanche on Pakistan Army

The Pakistani army who was trying to alert their soldiers on seeing the avalanche was incapable of doing so. This is because tons of snow was falling with a speed of 3000 km per hour. And in about 10 to 15 minutes, the entire place got under a 80 feet thick ice layer above the Northern Light Infantry headquarters. Scientists and the R&AW officers were horrified by seeing the tandav that KALI had made that day.

According to the reports, there were around 124 dead Pakistani soldiers on the ground, but according to the Indian Army, the count was 130.  

To sum up, Operation Whitewash was a successful project in terms of the destruction that it did to Pakistan’s North Light Infantry Headquarters, Siachen. And after the success of KALI, DRDO has made a small precise model of KALI that might get its hand in future wars by the Indian Army.