Jigar paused before continuing. ‘The Khemkaran contact met us with a truck, which was stolen. He left after giving us the keys to the truck and the address of a dhaba that he runs on the Chandigarh–Khemkaran highway. We were to spend the next forty-eight hours at the dhaba, in the small rooms he has built for patrons, posing as transporters. From Chandigarh, we were to take a bus to Delhi after dumping the truck in a remote, forested tract near Chandigarh.’

‘How did you enter India?’ Hoshiyaar asked him again.

‘We used gas-powered cutters to cut through the metal wires at the border, near milestone number 137, in the Khemkaran sector. There is a big ditch along the milestone, and we hid there for several hours after crossing the border at 9 last night. The cutters are buried north of the ditch, ten inches below the surface.’

‘What were you supposed to do after the Minerva job? How will you return to Pakistan? What’s your exit plan?’ Shekhar took up the questioning.

‘After the blasts, I was to take up a job as a hotel worker, then enrol in a school once my papers were made. Babaji told us that we will destroy India. They will have to answer for the Babri Masjid’s demolition, and the victims of Bombay’s 1992 riots.’

‘How many men has Babaji sent to do what he said must be done?’ Shekhar asked.

‘I was asked to wait for further instructions. Our leader is already in India; he will contact me. Babaji said we will have to set up our network, our sleeper cells. They are to be activated for action, then wait for further instructions.’

‘Why has your leader been sent to India? Where is he, what’s his name? When will he return to Pakistan?’

‘I do not know his name. He is settled in India. There is no exit plan for him,’ Jigar said with a chuckle.

‘No exit plan?’ Shekhar was surprised. ‘Why?’

‘Babaji said he has been sending trained Lashkar mujahideen to Hindustan to settle down. Permanently. To wage jihad from inside, to create a local base of collaborators and mujahids to conduct or aid in doing direct actions, blasts…’

Shekhar couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘How many such men have been sent here by your Babaji?’

‘I do not know much. But he often spoke about the leader, who was sent to Delhi in 1995. To run a PCO booth, but it did not work out and so he went somewhere else.’

‘How many operations has the leader carried out so far?’

‘None.’ Jigar turned to Hoshiyaar and taunted him, ‘Go, SHO sahib, find him if you and your Sucha Singh are sons of your parents!’