The chief signalled to his orderly, who had just come in, to get tea and coffee.

‘But, more importantly, at this moment, we need to take a deep breath and assess what we are up against so that we can adequately prepare for the latest challenge staring at us,’ he said. ‘What is Al-Cheema trying to do by embedding men like Salim Khwaja Amjad in our midst?’

The chief let the question sink in for a few moments before continuing. ‘He is creating a local cadre of killers, bomb-makers and saboteurs who are trained, ready and at his beck and call to incite and encourage our disaffected youth to take up arms and turn into traitors. Till recently, his trained murderers would come for specific attacks and would die while executing them, get arrested or return back home. Not any more. Al-Cheema is being unconventional and is upping his game by a few notches.

‘So we have to respond to this new, deadlier threat to India’s well-being from the LeT. We have to respond with a strategy that should be imaginative, audacious and capable of foiling the terror plans of the ISI and its puppet, the LeT. It must defang both of them, devastate their evil citadels. I want to hear your plans on this. Gentlemen?’

‘Let us begin by picking up all his suspected over-ground workers in India, booking them for supporting terror and drawing out whatever information they might have on Lashkar’s operations here,’ said Ankush Singh, who headed a group at the Pakistan desk.

The chief nodded. ‘Do that, but without messing it up. The grounds of arrest should be strong and must stand up to the court’s scrutiny. Taufiq, what do you propose to do?’

Taufiq Sheikh had spent five years with the CTC and was known for his nearly perfect record in operations.

‘Sir, we must net LeT’s Gulf-based operatives, who are involved in radicalizing men from the Indian diaspora there and also in guiding recruits from India to their destinations in Pakistan for training and indoctrination. We are planting our resources in their ranks as well, as you know,’ Taufiq said.

‘Who do you have in mind?’ the chief asked.

‘Hyderabad’s Shahed Qasim and his elder brother Rehan, who is an engineer and employed with a luxury watchmaking MNC, are both in Riyadh. Mumbai’s Salman Agarbattiwala, who is also an engineer and works with a petroleum major in Dubai, is another. These three are key Lashkar recruiters and must have supplied a dozen new recruits to the LeT in the last two years,’ Taufiq said.

‘Get them here through legal channels or otherwise. Talk to the authorities of the country concerned. Have them deported and flown in,’ the chief instructed.