Author's note continues....

The year 1979, when Russia occupied Afghanistan, marked the emergence of a strand of terrorism that was allegedly state-sponsored and made faith-based claims.

The world has suffered two of the most dastardly terror attacks in this century. One is known as the 9/11 attack of 2001 that killed around 3,000 people. It took place in the United States and was orchestrated by the Al-Qaeda.

The other tragedy is the 26/11 Mumbai attacks executed by Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, which killed 166 people in 2008. The LeT is accused of carrying out a spate of attacks across India – to wear India down as part of its strategy of attrition.

LeT lures gullible youth for ‘just war’ in the name of dubious propaganda and ‘propaganda of the deed’. It was set up in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed with the stated aim of attaining a theocratic, universal
state through ‘preaching’ and ‘armed struggle’. Its armed cadre got their first taste of combat in Kunar, Afghanistan, as part of the armed struggle against the Soviet Union. Over the years, it has acquired the reputation of being the alleged irregular special forces unit of Pakistani
intelligence. 

During my two-decade career as a crime reporter, I have seen – and felt – the ruinous impact of terror attacks. I cannot erase from my memory the sight of mangled body parts lying among charred metal pieces at blast sites. When I learn about a terror attack in any part of the world, the voice of a young mother, whom I met
eighteen years ago, still reverberates in my ears. I can hear the desperation and the helplessness in her words. She had lost her husband, a cab driver, in the twin blasts that rocked Mumbai in 2003. But she could not afford the luxury to grieve as she had to make sure her young school-going children survived the trauma of losing their loving father.  Her husband had had dreams of making
them doctors or lawyers, and paying their school fees demanded her immediate attention.

Operation Trojan Horse is the story of India’s fight against Pakistan-sponsored terror in the country.

To be continued...