The twelfth-pass Abu-Lakhvi also admired Dwight for his ‘perfect pronunciation’ and learned from it, another reason why he did not miss the 7 p.m. bulletin.

The room they were all sitting in was quite spacious, and was in bungalow number 30 D, named Clifton, in Karachi’s Defence Colony. It was one of the eight LeT safehouses in Pakistan’s commercial capital, which prided itself on its cosmopolitan culture. The city, which was dotted with skyscrapers, flyovers and serene seafronts, however, stayed in a virtual state of siege, with violence erupting on its streets and alleys among the ‘mohajir’ – the migrants – and sectarian militias and the local underworld.

Clifton was also one of the fifteen-odd addresses of Mumbai’s fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, alias Muchchad, who had orchestrated the 1993 serial blasts in India’s commercial capital with the help of the ISI. Dawood and a few other top accused in the blasts, namely, co-mastermind Tiger Memon, his brother Anees Kaskar and Javed Chikna had been on the run since then.

The mention of the 2002 Gujarat riots in Dwight’s bulletin brought back the focus of those assembled in the room to their jihad. Abu-Lakhvi’s terror outfit, along with its mentors in the ISI and the Pakistani establishment, had repeatedly exploited the incident to instigate and cajole Muslim Indian youth into rebellion and subversion. None uttered a word in the room, as Abu-Lakhvi and the others remain glued to the TV screen. After the news bulletin, there was a panel discussion, where a background on the riots was being given.

‘Abu-Muzammil, we have to return to hitting India hard, to knock it out of its senses. It seems there is again a buzz in that country over the controversial Gujarat riots issue thanks to the disclosure of official figures by the government, four years after the incident,’ Abu-Lakhvi finally said while sipping from a teacup. ‘You can’t let this opportunity go as well. Prepare, I want a plan. We meet here again at 6 p.m. tomorrow.’

‘BVP has a two hundred-acre campus in Naigaon, on the outskirts of Mumbai, named Kundan Sarvoday Sansthan, which is run in the name of an allied charitable entity. The campus is truly remarkable. Sixty per cent of the land is used to grow organic vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs. There are renewable energy-tapping resources at the campus, including solar panels, windmills and hydroelectricity plants,’ Abu-Muzammil addressed the men gathered in the Clifton safehouse the following evening.

Abu-Lakhvi, Al-Wali and Babar listened with rapt attention.

‘NGOs for women, underprivileged children, Dalit workers and farmers run programmes at the campus on behalf of the charity’s management. One of the NGOs working for women’s empowerment has organized a grand felicitation ceremony on 25 March to honour a group of a hundred beneficiaries who are running small-scale industrial manufacturing units.