topics: |  fiction | india | thriller

except that the characters have names like vikram and rajan and ankita and iqbal, or that all the locales are in places like ahmedabad and pune and faisalabad, this book could just as well have been a ludlum or clancy or forsyth.

mukul deva pioneers a new genre of indian english writing, riding on the boom in indian english readership, where the characters, story, themes and intended readership is largely indian. the story involves indian counter-insurgency operatives fighting in a breathless action that is very much a south asian construct. the result is a fast-paced spy-military thriller that is eminently readable, and full of believably told aspects on security operations.

and mukul deva is selling remarkably well, given the large indian english reading public. after all, india is the third largest producer of english language books.

thrillers on south asia

the south asian conflict has been the subject of military thrillers earlier - e.g. humphrey hawksley's dragon Fire, which poses pakistan and china in all-out war against india, and features an imaginary specialist indian assault group - somewhat like the force 22 here - the special frontier force.

while hawksley's few south asian characters were rather wooden, mukul deva is
able to infuse them with a bit more verisimilitude, though the fanatic
patriotism of the lead characters (and their opponents) makes them rather
one-dimensional.

deva was an officer in the indian army for 15 years, and saw action in sri
lanka, where a 10-year old girl shot dead a close fellow-officer, leaving
emotional scars.  he wrote a number of lost novels while in uniform, which
did not do too well.

the lashkar tetralogy

in 1910, he came up with lashkar, the first in the best-selling formula that
has led to this thriller quartet, of which blowback is the third.  the second
volume, salim must die became a hit.  that story had iqbal on a mission
inside pakistan, whose fallout we get to see at the start of blowback.
a fourth, tanzeem, will come out in 2011.

blowback features details of the modus operandi of an islamic terrorist
outfit, including recruitment at aligarh muslim university, and launching of
bombing raids in various hospitals, churches and other public places.  at the
start, iqbal, along with his lover tanaz, are sheltered for a while in a
terrorist den inside pakistan (a fallout from the story of an earlier novel).
they manage to escape to the force 22 base in india, where they get married,
and set off on a new mission.  they set up family in pune, and iqbal gets
recruited into the mujahideen...

the title refers to the unexpected conseuquences of intelligence operations
	no one can never tell what the blowback - the unintended
	consequences of an intelligence operation - might be.

while many of the characters, particularly the dialogues, seem rather
artificial, there are many nice touches, such as nicknames given by the corps
to many of its people (ankita bhatnagar and manoj khare are "beauty and
the beast" p.147)

many aspects of the story are unrealistic.  for example, how easily they
are hosted in the tashkar compound (near faisalabad), or how iqbal fails to
call tanaz (it is the age of mobile phones) before reaching the

however, the story keeps you turning pages, which is in the end the
desideratum of a tale well-spun.

excerpts

the eighteen men in the large room dictated the ebband flow of violence on
both sides of the Durand line ; they controlled every ounce of opium that was
grown in or moved out of the area... the rugged terrain had been controlled
for hundreds of years by warlords such as them.  p.2

[Ameen's strong line is quietly challenged by safiullah] with strong links
with Mullah Omar's Quetta-shura and an undisputed overlordship of the Swat
Valley p.5

thuraya phones from UAE - weapon of choice for many because it was so much
harder to track or monitor conversations - compared to iridium, immarsat or
the new Globalstar p.11

MQ-9 Reaper UAV:
typically carries 14 Hellfire missiles - 1.7 tons of armament payload -
far more powerful than the more common MQ-1B predator drone, which carries
only two Hms;  can also carry two 226kg GBU-12 laser guided precision bombs,
or the GBU-49 which does not req laser guidance. p.17

ch2 p.20

his eyes glowed w the cold mesmerizing light of a zealot - a psychopath. 20

[YPS leader salafi shot by mujib in front of asif] 29


[Iqbal and Tanaz are returning from murree to the Indian border;
confrontation with pak forces - 2 of them manage to kill half a dozen] 27

temple bomb jaipur hanuman mandir 55

ch5 : response after a terrorist attack

    "What the bloody hell are we doing, sittingon our hands while those bastards
go around killing scores of innocent men, women and children everywhere?  We
should just ... "
    "We should just what, Vikram?" Anbu asked quietly.
    "We know who is behind this, sir." Tiwathia looked agitated.  "The Indian
Mujahideen is just a front for the YPS... which is a tool of the ISI. p.57

[YPS was banned by the Supreme Crt p.113 - went underground. --> became
Indian Mujahideen]

After the debacle of the operations Gibraltor and Grand Slam, and the
comprehensive defeat handed them by Indian forces in all their wars, the
Pakistan Army realized they had no hope of matching forces with their
neighbour.  And so in 1988 Gen Zia launched operation TOPAC - a proxy war
initiated and supported by ISI, aimed at balkanizing India.
"This latest Indian Mujahideen stunt is their attempt to prove that this is a
domestic Indian problem and that Pakistan has nothing to do with it."  58

Pak as nut case:
Their economy is in shambles - growth rate is down from 6 to 0.6 percent,
inflation is soaring over 26 percent and unemployment growing daily.
[and yet they continue to pump money into terrorism] 58
75 percent of the terrorism in britain originated in Pakistan. 63

Sami explains Islam p.58-62

Five pillars of Islam:
  - Shahada: profession of the faith
  - Salat: the prayers
  - Zakat: Giving of alms
  - Sawm: fasting during Ramadan
  - Haj: pilgrimage to Mecca
these five are agreed to by both Shia and Sunni [59].

Shias: have a different call to prayers and combine prayers, sometimes thrice
instead of five times as in Sunni.  Also perform Wudu, or washing, and Salat,
differently.

Sharia: lit, path to the water-source - body of Islamic religious law.  If
followed, will lead to salvation.

In India, Shah Waliullah 18th c. - tried to revert to pure Islam.
Shah Ismail, grandson of Waliullah, tried to revive Salafism in India.
followers of Waliullah founded the Dar-ul-uloom at Deoband. -> Deobandis.

Wahabis: 18th c. Saudi - Muhammad Ibn Abd al Wahhab - purist - allied with
   House of Saud to try to eliminate all deviations from practice of Islam.
   was very successful not only in Saudi but also large parts of Yemen,
   Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. 61

In India, Syed Ahmed Barelvi, d.1831, promoted Wahhabism (see
Ayesha Jalal's Partisans of Allah, for a detailed academic history).
With Saudi aid, Salafism-Wahhabism flourishes in India  - and of course, in
Pakistan and Afghanistan.  See also the description of madrassas coming up
amid a flourishing, Saudi funded Wahhabism in  Greg Mortenson's
Three cups of tea.

Waliullah's followers - Salafis - founded the Dar-ul-uloom in Deoband with
a view to propagating the return of Islamic puritanism in India. 62

terrorism can never be resolved by sheer military might. ... 67

	[AM: unless through genocide; kill all the adult men, enslave some of
	the women, and socially integrate the progeny - as the mongols and
	countless others did with defeated tribes... ]

[then becomes banal] calls for an offensive-defence, constant innovations... 68

ch 6 p.72 - tanaz and iqbal in pakistan

Iqbal is severely wounded and their station wagon is damaged beyond repair.
Suddenly, four vans appear - they are taken by the mujahideen]

"Which group?"
"The Lashkar," Tanaz replied without hesitation. 76

[This is one of the weakest points among many weak points in the plot.  It is
unbelievable that their location / sub-organization within the Lashkar would
not be verified by anyone.  They are simply believed and allowed to
infiltrate the highly secure training camp, where they continue through
chapter 7]



ch8 :
[details of a terrorist modus operandi : ahmedabad multi-location bomb blasts
by Asif Sharif's group] 98-106

ch9 : NIA RAW NSA meeting with the PM 107-125

115-16 more on pakistan bkgd; wahhabis

madrasas in pakistan:
In 1947 there were less than 250 madrasas in pakistan; today there are 23K,
churning out 1.2 to 1.7mn students. 115

part of solution: national biometric id system p.119

ch10 126
iqbal and tanaz escape - monitoring all calls to india - pco tracking -
back to india - at the Force 22 base at Kasauli- marriage

ch11 intensive training 145

[believability: good nicknames for officers and other staff]

one can never tell what the blowback [...] - the unintended consequences of
an intelligence operation - might be.  You can never tell which way things
will blow, or who they'll blow away. [Anbu to Sami, p.165]

ch 12 pune

iqbal studies at an institute for management - neighbour brings food ; 166
iqbal builds credibility by rudely rebuking Tanaz for not covering her face 175

ch13 181 : Iqbal infiltrates the IM

ch14 190
photos while unpacking so re-packing will be identical 192

ch 15 201
unexploded bombs after plantings.  there were only two new recruits, and
the circuits were w iqbal for custody - but he isn't caught
deva tries hard to make this more believable but it is a big hole to plug
up...

ch 16 p.217
asif enters the iqbal household, takes over their phones, rendering them
incapable of connecting to their bases. back to the very basics - direct
face-to-face contact...

[this is an effective chapter, builds back the suspense]

ch17 235
bombs in varanasi - most are tracked - defused

ch18 252
asif is sure there is a betrayer.

ch 21 bombing operation on delhi churches, p.297

ch 22

back to pune.  tragedy.
but here comes another plot problem... though iqbal's house was phoneless
	after asif in ch16, surely tanaz had gotten a phone since then?  when
	he manages to call anbu in the midst of the action, why cant he call
	tanaz when he is relatively free on his way back...

terrorists often have criminal origins

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Business-of-terror/articleshow/9254539.cms
Riyaz Bhatkal, the co-founder of Indian Mujahideen (believed to be an
offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba for executing the Karachi Project), had been
part of a criminal syndicate in Mumbai before he turned to terrorism.

A similar pattern is visible among the Hindu fundamentalist group that was
behind blasts in places like Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and in the Samjhauta
Express. Sunil Joshi, one of the co-conspirators in the attacks, had
earlier been charged with the murder of tribal leader Pyar Singh
Nenama. Harshad Solanki, who is an accused in Gujarat's Best Bakery case,
is another key player in the so-called right-wing terror module.