Clad in white track pants and black-blue check T-shirts, a hundred young men and teenagers were performing a combination of army-style physical exercises, karate moves and stick–sword drills in the large grounds of Jai Ambey High School and Junior College in Mumbai. The school, located in Kurla East, had been set up sixty years ago by the founder of the Bharatiya Vikas Parishad (BVP), which described itself as ‘a Hindu socio-cultural group’. A ‘patriotic’ outfit, its members believed in action for the ‘right’ causes, according to BVP. The school, among the hundred such set up across the country, was established as part of the socio-cultural initiatives undertaken by BVP founder Shankarrao Abhyankar (1905–1970) to uplift Hindu society. Abhyankar, who had participated in the country’s freedom movement as a Gandhian, later turned apolitical and devoted his life to community service, including in the fields of education, culture and socio-economic upliftment.

The morning meeting-cum-exercise session of the BVP volunteers went on for about half an hour under the watchful eyes of Vyayam Pramukh (Exercise Head) Vishnu Kelkar, a lawyer-cum-social activist. The session ended with the congregation paying its respects to the national tricolour and the BVP flag, which had motifs from the flags of iconic medieval Indian warrior-kings Maharana Pratap and Prithviraj Chauhan.

The seventy-year-old Vishnu, fondly known as Vishnu dada to the BVP volunteers, was about to kick-start his rickety blue Vespa scooter when his old friend, Raghuvir Sawant, arrived.

Sawant had retired as an assistant secretary with CTC five years ago and still performed select assignments for his old agency. He was called in for tasks that required the set of skills and contacts he had acquired over the thirty-five years that he had worked for CTC. Operation Trojan Horse was one such CTC mission that would require Sawant’s services.

Shekhar had called him two days ago and had requested him to be a part of the operation. He had asked Sawant to find suitable recruits for Operation Trojan Horse, men who would be willing to go to Pakistan. Sawant had promised to do his best for CTC, as always.

‘Vishnuji, namaskar! How are you? How are the BVP and its followers, your wards?’ Sawant asked.

‘I am fine and so are the BVP and my children. All thanks to your blessings, Raghuvir ji. Tell me, what brings you here after all these months? All is well, I hope?’ Kelkar asked.

‘I am back at work, Vishnuji. My organization needs my services. It brought me out of retirement, again,’ said Sawant. ‘I need volunteers for a secret mission that will need supreme sacrifices, including personal, from the participants. Excellent care will be taken of the volunteers, in terms of salaries, of course. The volunteers must be told that they will have to re-invent themselves as per the needs of the mission and there is no choice to say no once they commit.