by Tom Hussain
GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN // A small-framed, bearded man in his thirties named Zubair walked into a computer repair shop in the Civil Lines suburb of Gujranwala, his eyes widening quizzically as he registered the playful taunts of his elder brother.
“He’s got better things to do nowadays. Since he got married, it’s been hard to prise him away from his wife. The business is in trouble,” said Badr, directing his banter at the newlywed.
Zubair smiled shyly and joined the small group of people huddled in conversation between stacks of ageing PCs.
Assured by the right social introductions and the promise that his full identity would not be revealed, he introduced himself as the sole survivor of a squad of eight militants who had in October 1993 been besieged by Indian forces at the Muslim shrine of Hazratbal in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Over cups of overly sweet milky tea, Zubair described how he had sneaked past a cordon of Indian troops and made it across the Line of Control, the heavily fortified de facto Kashmir border, back into Pakistani-administered territory.
“I was so close I could see the expressions on their faces. It’s a miracle that they didn’t see me. It was as if I was invisible to them,” he said.
However, his return was viewed with suspicion by the Pakistani military’s intelligence agencies, which from 1988 to 2002 deployed militants such as Zubair as strategic pawns in a barely covert guerrilla war against their conventionally more powerful neighbour.
“They couldn’t believe he had survived unless he had been captured and turned by the Indians,” said Salman, a school friend. “They detained and interrogated him for weeks before being convinced his return was a twist of fate.”
“Frankly, it was a dishonourable display of behaviour, and we have lost all respect for them.”
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(Submitted by reader)