Shekhar signalled to Hoshiyaar to stay calm. He knew that the boy’s cooperation was crucial for finding out more details about the LeT’s unprecedented plan to send men to India to never return. Such a possibility took the challenge of dealing with Pakistan-sponsored terror to another level.

Shekhar stepped out of the interrogation room to call his superior.

8. BABAJI’S MAN WITH NO EXIT PLAN

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BABAJI’S MAN WITH NO EXIT PLAN

The plot to bomb several movie theatres in Delhi was nipped in the bud. The two Khalistani operatives and Firoze Ashraf, alias Jigar Singh, were grilled thoroughly and later kept captive in a Patiala jail. But the disclosure that Ashraf had made about the anonymous senior Lashkar commander who had come to India without an exit plan triggered a response that would have far-reaching implications.

The CTC did not know the commander’s name or the names of his associates. They did not even have a sketch or a mugshot of him. All they knew was that their target’s plan to run a PCO booth in Old Delhi had fizzled out over a year ago.

Over the next six months, informants, of both the CTC and Delhi Police, fanned out across the city’s lanes, streets, slums and markets, especially in the historic Old Delhi. They were looking for any scrap of information on a man who spoke Urdu with a Punjabi accent and had tried to set up a PCO booth in Old Delhi three years ago. Several names cropped up and were duly investigated. But the exercise drew a blank.

At the Chanakyapuri office of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the public sector telecom service provider, a sharp eye was being kept on Indian telephone numbers that received calls from known or suspected LeT phone numbers for any reference to the PCO operator. A few dozen suspicious numbers were put on a 24x7 tap, but without any lucky break.

Shekhar’s bosses were contacting him on a weekly basis to find out if he had any leads on the ‘PCO Man’. Exasperated, Shekhar went to Patiala twice to meet Ashraf, but he could not add anything more to the information he had already given.

Shekhar would often meet his colleague Agyeya to discuss the case. At one such meeting, he was feeling particularly frustrated. After ordering their standard tea and cappuccino, he decided to talk to Agyeya about what was troubling him.

‘What do you do when you have nothing to show after months of honest efforts?’

Agyeya mulled over the question for a few seconds, stirring his coffee. Finally, he said, ‘You need to double your efforts. It may still not be enough. Then, wait for a break; it will come.’

9. ‘MAN OF RESPECT’ IN HYDERABAD

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‘MAN OF RESPECT’ IN HYDERABAD