The Amar Ujala Samwad 2025 event kicked off on April 17 in Lucknow’s Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. At the event, former BSF Deputy Inspector General Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey shared the gripping story behind the film ‘Ground Zero,’ starring Imran Hashmi. The film is based on Dubey’s real-life mission to encounter terrorist Ghazi Baba in Kashmir.
The Encounter That Changed Everything
Dubey recounted the intense moments of the operation, revealing that he sustained seven bullet injuries during the encounter. “My right hand went numb, and I didn’t realize how many bullets I had taken until I was in the hospital,” he said. Despite the severity of his injuries, Dubey credited his good fortune for surviving the ordeal. One bullet remains lodged inside his body to this day, a constant reminder of the risks he faced.
A steel plate saved Dubey’s life by deflecting three bullets that hit his chest. “The plate crushed the bullets, and I only needed stitches,” he explained. The true extent of his injuries wasn’t clear until the next day when he regained consciousness in the hospital.
A Mission That Almost Didn’t End Well
Dubey described the encounter as a close brush with death. “We knew Ghazi Baba was a high-value target with a massive crime on his head – the attack on the Indian Parliament,” he said. The operation resulted in the death of one of his team members, Bhavir Singh, a loss that still weighed heavily on Dubey.
After the mission, Dubey received congratulations from the DGP while in ICU. “When I came to, the DGP told me that Ghazi Baba was now history,” Dubey recalled. Learning about the success of the mission and the fate of his fellow operatives brought him some comfort despite his own condition.
Dubey’s hospitalization was lengthy, with multiple surgeries and a slow recovery. He was finally discharged from AIIMS on December 19, 2007. The story of his bravery and the mission that inspired ‘Ground Zero’ left a lasting impression on everyone at Amar Ujala Samwad 2025.