The Flimsy Pearl String

Bps Mander

Genre: Fiction, Pages: 225, binding: Hardbound, ISBN No.-978-93-82070-39-9

“An Indian army patrol, led by Major Raqib Sultan, goes missing in Jammu and Kashmir. The only possibility is that it could have strayed into the Chinese territory in Aksai Chin, but the Chinese deny the existence of the patrol outright. Is it China’s growth and military might that is manifesting in this arrogance so blatantly on display? Whatever the reason, India would have to react from a position of strength if it has to hold its own against the dragon. When all avenues fail, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) come up with a plan. A Liquefied Natural Gas tanker is picked up from the ship breaking yard, refurbished and given a new identity. In the hands of Mir Sultan, brother of Raqib Sultan, this tanker is moved into the Straits of Malacca, with the threat to blow it in the narrowest part of the Straits, should the Indian patrol not be released. With over 50,000 ships sailing through the Straits every year, transporting over thirty percent of the world’s trade goods, and a quarter of the oil carried by sea passing through the Straits, accounting for 80 percent of the oil imports of China, Japan and Korea; what will be the reaction? With China sailing its Carrier Group to secure the South China Sea, the Americans deploying the Seventh Fleet, and the littorals pushing their own agenda; how will the power games play out? Will the dragon blink, or will there be devastation of unimaginable proportions?"