BLOWBACK (6 page)

The sudden shrill ringing of the secure phone on Anbu’s table startled the three men. Sami made to rise, but Anbu gestured to him to stay put.

‘Don’t worry, MS. I’ll take that.’ Leaning forward, he picked up the receiver.
‘
Yes?
What?
Okay! Let me call you back.’

Returning the handset to its cradle, he picked up the remote control lying next to the phone and flicked on the television. The three men watched in mounting horror as the bloodbath on the screen cascaded into the room.

‘T
he first bomb went off at 7:30 p.m. at the entrance to the Hanuman Mandir in old Jaipur city. At that time the temple was packed with devotees who were leaving after the evening aarti. The explosion caused a stampede, resulting in many more casualties. In the next twelve minutes, seven more bombs went off in other, equally crowded areas of the old city. All the bombs appear to have been placed on cycles and had been carefully deployed on the various routes leading away from the temple. It’s obvious that the terror module responsible for these serial blasts had reconnoitered the area thoroughly and carefully worked out the direction in which people would flee after each successive bomb blast. Details of the casualties have yet to be established, though initial estimates indicate that at least sixty-five people have lost their lives in this horrific attack and more than three times that number have been injured.’

The reporter’s voice was pitched high with excitement. The camera broke away from his face to show the destruction all around – the large black crater on the road, shattered vehicles and windows, blotches of blood staining the road. Shattered limbs lay desolately here and there. Shaken, battered people could be seen stumbling around in a daze, the braver amongst them ferrying the wounded to the cluster of ambulances that darted in sporadically and sped away with blaring horns and flashing strobe lights.

‘Bloody hell!’ Tiwathia exclaimed. ‘What’s this about?’

‘An email was received by all major news channels and the Rajasthan police commissioner’s office just six minutes before the first bomb exploded,’ the anchor’s voice announced. ‘The two-page email was sent by a group that calls itself the Indian Mujahideen and it challenged the police to stop the blasts and threatened dire reprisals against the state and people of India.’

Extracts from the email began to scroll across the television screen.

Hindus! O disbelieving, faithless Indians! Haven’t you realized that the falsehood of your thirty-three crore dirty mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols of Ram, Krishna and Hanuman are not going to save your necks, Inshallah, from being slaughtered by our hands? Never again will we let you sleep in peace. Never again will you step into a market without fear clutching at your heart. Never again will you leave your house without the fear of not knowing if you will return alive. We will ensure that the dust will never settle...’

FIVE

‘
What the bloody hell are we doing, sitting on our hands while those bastards go around killing scores of innocent men, women and children everywhere? We should just…’

‘We should just what, Vikram?’ Anbu asked quietly.

‘We know who is behind this, sir.’ Tiwathia looked agitated. ‘The Indian Mujahideen is just a front for the YPS. And I am sure there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the YPS is yet another tool being used by the ISI.’

‘No, Vikram, I am not saying there is any doubt. We all know that Pakistan is using the jihadis to bleed us white.’ Anbu didn’t elaborate since both his officers were already conversant with the facts. After the debacle of two failed operations, Gibraltor and Grand Slam, and the comprehensive defeat handed out to them by the Indian forces in all the wars they had fought, the Pakistan Army had realized they had no hope of matching forces with their neighbours. And so, in 1988, General Zia launched Operation TOPAC, a proxy war initiated and supported by the ISI, which was aimed at balkanizing India. ‘This latest Indian Mujahideen stunt is their attempt to prove that this is a domestic Indian problem and that Pakistan has nothing to do with it.’

‘Aren’t they serious nutcases?’ Sami couldn’t contain himself. ‘Their economy is in shambles. Their economic growth rate is down from 6 to 0.6 per cent, inflation is soaring over 25 per cent, and unemployment is growing on a daily basis. They barely have enough to eat and yet they’re exhausting all their resources either trying to balkanize India or talibanize Afghanistan. If the IMF had not given the Pakis over 7 billion dollars in aid last year and the Americans were not pumping in over 1.5 billion dollars every year, Pakistan would have crumbled and fragmented long ago.’

‘I don’t understand how there can be any Indian support for these conniving, deceitful bastards.’ Tiwathia slammed his fist on the table angrily.

‘Vikram, it’s always easy for terrorist groups to recruit criminals or otherwise disgruntled and disillusioned people. Anyway, I think this is a question MS will be able to answer better.’ Anbu gave Sami an encouraging look.

‘Well, sir, we all know that politicians will do anything to exploit the minority vote bank. And there have been several incidents that left many Indian Muslims feeling persecuted. These are the people the ISI is using to carry out terror strikes in India.’

‘But don’t these guys realize they are being used as pawns by the ISI?’

‘It’s not that simple, Vikram. Let me give you a potted history first, okay? Like every socio-religious group, Muslims are also divided into various groups – Sunnis, Shias, Brelvis, Hanafis, Sufis, Deobandis, Salafis, and other, more radical ones like the Wahhabis.

‘Both Sunnis and Shias agree on the Five Pillars of Islam: Shahada, the profession of faith; Salat, the prayers; Zakat, the giving of alms; Sawm, fasting during Ramadan; and Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. However, Sunnis feel that Shias are more focused on the martyrdom of Ali and Hussein and less on the fundamentals of Islam. Shias also have a different call to prayer and often combine prayers, thus sometimes worshipping only thrice instead of the five times that Sunnis insist on. They even perform Wudu, or washing, and Salat differently and place their forehead on pieces of hardened clay from Karbala rather than on the prayer mat directly. Clear so far?’

Tiwathia nodded.

‘Sunnis, on the other hand, believe that the first four Caliphs rightfully took Mohammed’s place as the leader of the Muslim world and they recognize their heirs as legitimate religious leaders. Also, Shias and Sunnis have very different views or interpretations of the Sharia, which literally means the path to the water source and is the body of Islamic religious law, which if followed will lead to salvation.’ Sami stopped and looked at them expectantly.

‘Okay, I think I got that,’ Tiwathia said, after he had mulled it over for a moment. ‘Now tell me about the radical sects you mentioned earlier.’

‘The fundoos are the ones who seek to establish a global Islamic state and want all Muslims to return to pristine Islam as it was practised in the early period. These so-called purists take a very stringent view of the Sharia and are dead against any deviations from the Islam that was practised by the Prophet, his companions and their immediate followers. That’s why they take a very dim view not only of non-Muslims, but also of other Muslim sects – particularly the ones that take a more liberal view of Islam.’

‘I see... go ahead.’

‘Okay, so just like Muslims everywhere else, the Indian Muslim has also been influenced by various schools of Islamic thought down the ages. In India, in the eighteenth century, there was Shah Waliullah, who tried to address every section of Muslim society and get them to revert to pure Islam. He didn’t have much success but his views exert considerable influence even today. In fact, it’s unfortunate that several sections of the ulema study his teachings just to try and prove his Deobandi or Brevli roots.’

‘Why is that unfortunate?’

‘Simply because both those sects originated long after Waliullah’s death.’

‘So, basically they are just trying to capitalize on his name.’

‘Exactly.’ Sami nodded and resumed, ‘The second person who tried hard to revive Salafism in India was Shah Ismail, the grandson of Shah Waliullah. However, like his grandfather, he didn’t make much headway; nevertheless, he is viewed by the modern Islamic fundamentalist as a role model.’

‘So how relevant is all this to what’s happening in India today?’

‘I’m coming to that, but first let me take you back to Saudi Arabia for a moment. In the eighteenth century, there lived a man named Muhammad Ibn Abd al Wahhab. Wahhab was another purist who formed an alliance with the House of Saud, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, to try and eliminate all deviations from the practice of Islam. He was by all accounts very successful in this alliance; even today, the Saudi ulema is very closely associated with the House of Saud. In fact, now the Wahhabi writ runs large not just in Saudi Arabia but also in parts of Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. They also have considerable influence over large parts of South Asia.’

‘And what about India?’

‘Well, with Saudi aid, the Salafis flourish in India even today. However, you must understand that historically the Indian Muslim is secular and by now totally sick of the way our religion has been maligned by these jihadis. We’re tired of being viewed with suspicion by everyone because of the actions of a handful of fundamentalists.’ He spoke bitterly. ‘By now, the world over, most people only associate terrorism with Islam; they don’t realize that Islam is the second largest religion in the world and as beautiful, deep and strong as any other.’ There was complete silence when he stopped.

‘It’s complex, I know.’ Sami gave a small smile. ‘It can be a bit confusing, especially if you understand that what I am saying is merely my interpretation of events; there are many who have differing views on all this.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, to round off, in India, Waliullah’s followers founded the Dar-ul-uloom at Deoband with a view to propagating the return of Islamic puritanism in India. For the Deobandis, the guiding principles remain the goals of Waliullah. In India they exercise considerable influence through a network of madrassas.’

‘So it’s basically Waliullah’s legacy that we are suffering even to this day?’

‘Well, that’s not quite how I would put it, but you’re not incorrect in saying that.’

‘And the ISI simply uses this segment to unleash terror in India!’ Tiwathia shook his head gravely. ‘Don’t the Pakis realize how badly all this shit is going to boomerang on them?’

None of them offered an opinion since they all knew from watching the news that most of Pakistan was in flames. The Swat Valley was already under Taliban control, Peshawar teetered on the edge, and now even the major Punjabi and Sindhi cities were under threat. Despite the elaborate denials issued by the civilian government ostensibly in control of Pakistan, it was no secret that in the NWFP, which in geographical terms was about one-sixth of Pakistan, women had already been forced back into the burqa, over two hundred girls’ schools had been destroyed, music was banned and barbers forbidden to shave beards. In an almost exact repeat of the scenario that had earlier played out in Afghanistan when the Taliban moved in to seize control, the beard patrols were out and the slightest infraction invited brutal, primitive punishments like flogging and stoning.

‘Everyone realizes that, Vikram,’ Anbu finally spoke up. ‘There has hardly ever been a terrorist incident anywhere in the world that hasn’t implicated Pakistan in some way or the other. Either there were Pakistani nationals or people of Pakistani origin involved, or the attackers had spent some time in Pakistan in the period preceding the attacks. And all the organizations that perpetrated these attacks continue to function with total impunity in Pakistan, though in some rare cases they have made some trivial, cosmetic changes to their names. In fact, just recently the British prime minister went on record to state that over 75 per cent of the terror attacks against Britain originated in Pakistan.’

‘Why is that surprising?’ Tiwathia flared up. ‘We all know that regular Pakistan Army troops and ISI paramilitaries were fighting alongside Al Qaeda when the Americans attacked Afghanistan. That’s why they even had to beg the Americans to give them a few hours’ window to get their troops out when Khost was attacked.’

‘The irony is that it was the CIA who helped Osama to build that massive complex of tunnels at Tora Bora.’ Sami gave a grim smile. ‘Then they had to expend so many American lives to capture it back.’

‘Well, serves the fools right. We warned them about this all along, but they never paid any attention to us, and now every bloody Al Qaeda idiot is either hiding in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas or being given safe sanctuary there. Funnily enough, the Americans had used these identical hideouts to launch mujahideen operations against the Russians in the eighties.’

‘And don’t forget how the Pakis kept Osama Bin Laden and about fifty of his Taliban fighters at the Chirat commando training facility in northwest Pakistan, in August 1998, when the Americans were pressurizing Mullah Omar to give him up.’

‘What else could they do? They could hardly leave their old Taliban buddy in the lurch. They hid Osama in Chirat so that Mullah Omar could tell the Americans he was not in Afghanistan.’

‘That’s the nub of the problem, Vikram.’ Anbu stepped into the discussion. ‘After creating this monstrous lot of terror organizations and supporting them all these years, the Pakis suddenly realized that they would have to turn on them or at least appear to turn on them when old George Bush gave them the “are you with us or against us” ultimatum after 9/11.’

‘They couldn’t turn on them even if they wanted to, sir. There’s no way in hell the Pak Army or the ISI will allow that to happen. Not after the massive Islamization programme that they went through under General Zia. Now they’re not only sympathetic towards the Taliban and Al Qaeda, they actually applaud their rabid ideology and support it fully. In fact, they regard these terror groups as strategic assets.’