The bodies, draped in white, were carried out of the Iyer residence on the shoulders of their dear ones: Srinivas, his three remaining sons, two brothers, two nephews and Somaiya, who had arrived just in time. The bodies were accompanied by the wails of relatives, the holy chants of the priest and the deathly silence of Srinivas, who seemed to be in a daze.

The mourners left for the cremation ground, which abutted the waters of the Vaippar, one of the main rivers that sustain Tuticorin’s communities.

‘Why? Why was my kid brother butchered? Who would have the heart to knife him repeatedly? Sadiq’s relatives?’ Atharv screamed at Somaiya after the funeral. He took Somaiya by his arms and shook him. Somaiya looked Atharv in the eyes for a moment, put a hand on his shoulder and looked away. They were both crying.

‘I want to avenge Vishu’s death, I want to pluck the hearts out of the killers’ chests with my bare hands. You were with the central intelligence, right? Something named CTC, right? Help me, for you are in a position to. And, I have a debt to pay for Vishu,’ Atharv whispered to Somaiya. Somaiya heard out Atharv without uttering a word.

Atharv repeated his request when he visited Somaiya at the latter’s modest hotel room two days later.

When Somaiya spoke, he did so matter-of-factly. ‘Ismail. Ismail is the one who led the attack. Ismail was waiting for you and Vishu in that alley that day. He is the one who stabbed Vishu. He is related to Sadiq but is not a local. He was sent here by someone. He is a professional killer who works for the mafia in Chennai, and his associates have criminal records as bulky as his.’

‘What?’ Atharv could not make sense of any of this. ‘A professional criminal attacked us that day? What’s the connection? How do you know all these details?’

‘I spoke to the Tuticorin commissioner of police two days ago, before I left Delhi to fly here. The police are looking into who ordered the killing and hired Ismail. There is a good chance that Ismail came here on his own to avenge Sadiq’s death. But the attack seems more like an orchestrated crime, meant as a trigger for communal violence as assembly elections are around the corner.

‘Phones of some suspects were monitored. As per the intercepted chatter, Suleiman Shaikh – of the Majlisi Defence League – and his goons could have been involved in issuing the contract. The police suspect that Suleiman has ties with the Pakistani ISI. It is to be verified if the orders to kill Vishu came from his Lahore-based handlers. ISI is forever trying to create communal disturbances here, associating itself with organized criminal gangs and using them as hirelings for various purposes,’ Somaiya said.