A New India
Chapter 160 - 160: Purge

Khalid was furious, no, beyond furious. Colonel Tariq, one of his most trusted men, had been captured by R&AW, and this wasn't just a loss, it was a catastrophe.

They had plucked him right out of Karachi, under the noses of his own men.

This had gone too far.

Losing two operatives in such a short time was embarrassing enough, but Tariq

He had thought Tariq was untouchable.

That confidence was now shattered.

Khalid slammed his fist down on the desk, sending papers flying.

His office, usually a sanctuary of calculated control, now felt like a prison, suffocating him with the consequences of his failures.

A knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.

Abdul Rashid, his second-in-command, stepped inside, his face unreadable.

He'd been waiting for Khalid to snap, but what came next was beyond anything he expected.

"They've humiliated us," Khalid spat, the venom in his voice clear. "This is no longer about catching up, Abdul. They're ahead of us, and we're bleeding."

Rashid stood silently, waiting for Khalid to continue.

He knew the fury brewing inside his superior, he could see it in the clench of Khalid's jaw, the wild look in his eyes.

"I want them gone," Khalid growled. "All of them. R&AW thinks they can break us from the inside, tear us apart piece by piece. I won't let that happen. We're going to fight back."

"Sir?" Rashid asked cautiously, though he already knew what was coming.

"A purge, Abdul. We've been too trusting, too complacent. There's a rot within ISI, and I'll burn it out if I have to."

Khalid picked up the phone, dialing directly to General Ayub Khan, the man who ran Pakistan with an iron fist.

General Ayub Khan wasn't an easy man to rattle, but Khalid's voice had a tone of desperation that was hard to ignore.

"I need your permission to launch a full-scale internal purge," Khalid said, his words clipped and urgent.

"We've been compromised. I can't trust half my men. R&AW's reach is deeper than we thought."

There was silence on the other end of the line as Ayub processed what Khalid was asking.

A purge of ISI was no small matter. It could destabilize the agency and spark fear within its ranks.

But the recent losses couldn't be ignored. Losing Tariq was a significant blow, one that could expose ISI's most sensitive operations.

"Do what you have to," Ayub finally replied, his voice hard. "But be careful, Khalid. We need ISI strong, not paranoid."

Khalid barely listened to the warning. His mind was already set.

He was going to purge ISI, and he wasn't going to stop until he was sure that the mole, whoever it was had been rooted out.

Within hours, ISI officers across Pakistan were being called into meetings, some in the middle of the night, others dragged from their homes.

Khalid was moving fast, ordering his most loyal men to lead the purge.

The directive was simple: interrogate, break, and eliminate.

Anyone who showed even the slightest sign of disloyalty was a target.

The first to go were those closest to Colonel Tariq.

Major Imran and his team had been responsible for Tariq's security detail in Karachi.

Khalid had already made up his mind that they were either incompetent or compromised.

----

Major Imran sat across from Khalid in a dark interrogation room.

His hands were cuffed to the table, his face bruised from the initial "interview" that had taken place.

The fluorescent light overhead flickered, casting shadows that danced across the room.

"Tell me again, Imran," Khalid said, his voice dangerously calm. "How exactly did R&AW manage to walk into Karachi and take Tariq right from under your nose?"

Imran's eyes were bloodshot, his face swollen from the beating he'd already endured. "Sir, we—"

Before he could finish, Khalid's fist slammed into his face, knocking Imran's head back against the metal chair.

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Khalid snarled, standing over the man. "You had one job. One. And now Tariq is in an Indian prison, spilling everything he knows. You were either in on it, or you're completely useless. Either way, you've failed me."

Imran coughed, blood dripping from his split lip. "Sir, please. We didn't know. They moved so fast… there was nothing we could—"

Khalid grabbed the back of Imran's head and slammed it onto the table, the dull thud of his skull against metal echoing in the small room.

"You think I care about your excuses?" Khalid spat, his eyes wild with fury. "You and your team failed. Do you know what that means?"

Imran was gasping for breath, his vision blurry, but he understood the meaning behind Khalid's words. They were dead men walking.

---

Across Islamabad and Karachi, the purge was underway.

ISI officers were dragged from their homes, interrogated in dark rooms, and, in many cases, executed without trial.

Khalid's men, those he trusted implicitly, were given orders to show no mercy. This wasn't about justice, it was about survival.

In one of the many safe houses ISI used, Major Ali, another senior officer, was woken in the dead of night.

He had heard rumors of the purge but hadn't expected it to come for him.

The door to his room burst open, and three men stormed in, rifles drawn.

Ali barely had time to reach for his gun before they were on him. A swift kick to his chest sent him crashing into the wall.

"What the hell is this?" Ali spat, blood trickling from his mouth as he struggled to stand.

"The purge," one of the men replied coldly. "You're under suspicion of working with R&AW."

Ali's heart raced. "You think I'm a traitor? Are you insane?"

One of the men punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "We're not here to argue, Major. We're here to ensure ISI's survival."

Ali's eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out, but there was none. He was trapped.

Before he could make another move, a bullet tore through his leg, sending him crashing to the ground.

The pain was excruciating, but he knew worse was coming.

"Please, I'm loyal," Ali gasped, his hands shaking as he tried to stop the bleeding.

"I've served ISI my whole life."

But his pleas fell on deaf ears. The men dragged him from the room, leaving a trail of blood behind them.

Outside, the streets were eerily quiet, as if the city itself knew that something dark was happening behind closed doors.

As the purge raged on, Khalid's anger only grew.

Every officer brought before him was met with the same cold rage, the same brutal interrogation.

He wanted names, wanted to know who had betrayed ISI, who had handed over Tariq to R&AW.

Abdul Rashid, who had once stood loyally by Khalid's side, was beginning to question the wisdom of the purge.

The agency was bleeding, and soon there would be no one left to trust.

"Khalid, we need to stop," Rashid said, stepping into Khalid's office late one night.

"We're tearing ISI apart from the inside. The men are scared. Morale is in the gutter."

Khalid looked up from his desk, his eyes cold and distant. "We're cleaning house, Abdul. When this is over, ISI will be stronger than ever."

Rashid shook his head. "At what cost? We've lost over a dozen officers. Men who were loyal. Men who had nothing to do with Tariq's capture."

Khalid stood up, walking slowly toward Rashid. "You don't get it, do you? This isn't just about Tariq. R&AW is trying to destroy us. I will not let that happen. We need to root out the rot before it consumes everything."

Rashid stared at him for a moment, seeing the madness in his eyes.

He realized then that Khalid was too far gone.

The purge wouldn't stop until every shred of doubt had been eliminated, no matter how many lives it took.

By the end of the week, ISI was a shadow of its former self.

Dozens of officers had been purged, either executed or disappeared.

Khalid had eliminated anyone he deemed a threat, but in doing so, he had sown fear and distrust throughout the agency.

In his office, Khalid stood by the window, looking out over Islamabad.

The city was quiet, but he knew the storm was far from over.

R&AW had taken Colonel Tariq, but Khalid had taken his revenge.

Or so he thought.