An hour later, Atharv, Anant and Nirav received their Pakistani passports, under assumed names. Atharv was now Zakir Ahmed, Anant was Akram Ahmed, while Nirav was Abdul Qadir Ahmed.

‘Your flight is for the day after tomorrow. You will fly Pakistan International Airlines, which will take you to Karachi via Dubai,’ the mustachioed man told the boys as he handed over the passports. ‘I am Salem and I am from the embassy. My colleague here is also from the embassy,’ he finally introduced himself.

‘Congratulations on getting your Pakistani passports. Your stature has increased, and you are no longer meek now,’ the Doctor said.

‘Thank you,’ said Atharv. ‘Doctor bhai, why do they call you “Doctor” and what do you do here in Kathmandu?’

‘Doctor is Doctor as he has a degree in unani medicine,’ Salem responded on behalf of the Doctor.

‘A few years ago, the Doctor killed two Indian Army doctors in Srinagar.’ Salem’s colleague, who had not identified himself so far, spoke for the first time. A smile danced on his lips. The Doctor just looked at him and smirked.

The Doctor later told Atharv that Salem and his friend were from the ‘agency’, as the ISI was sometimes called by its operatives. Atharv smiled. The game had begun.

33. ROAD TO THAMEL

33

ROAD TO THAMEL

‘They say Kashmiris are unfortunate, miserable and lonely. Some in the ummat say that Kashmir’s men and women, young and old, are suffering. Their blood is being shed; they are targeted by the Indian Army.

‘But I say they are very fortunate. They are not miserable, unfortunate and lonely because they have the qaum with them.

‘It was not Assam, Manipur or Bengal, not Punjab, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra, but Kashmir that was chosen as the stage of Ghazwa-e-Hind. Is that a misfortune or fortune?

‘You die every day, of diabetes, in a road accident, by falling in a pothole, or because of addiction to alcohol and drugs. But the people of Kashmir have the chance to attain martyrdom. When you attain martyrdom for your religion, the doors to Paradise open for you.

‘The alcoholics will queue up in the line for alcoholics; the vile will queue up in the line for the vile, but the Kashmiris will enter Paradise in a royal manner, in the line meant for martyrs, wearing the crown of martyrdom,’ said the man dressed in black trousers and a white and blue checked shirt.

With his lean, five-foot-ten-inch frame, Malik Rehman, who had brown eyes and a sharp voice, seemed taller than he was to his listeners at Indore’s Tipu Sultan mosque.