Book Review
Terror in Islamabad by Amar Bhushan
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| Terror in Islamabad by Amar Bhushan |
My Ratings: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Amar Bhushan joined
the Indian Police Service in 1967 and was assigned to Madhya Pradesh. For seven
years, he dealt with crime and law and order problems but remained a reluctant
policeman. When the opportunity for working in intelligence organizations came,
he grabbed it and never looked back till he retired as the chief of India’s
foremost technical intelligence agency. He began the second innings of his
career by briefly serving in the BSF intelligence, State Special Branch, and
Intelligence Bureau and ended up working in the Research and Analysis Wing
for the next twenty-four years.
His last published
work, Escape to Nowhere, remained on bestseller lists for eleven weeks. He
lives with his wife and daughter in Bangalore but seldom misses an opportunity
to visit his granddaughters in the US and his mother in Jasidih, a village in
Jharkhand.
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| Amar Bhushan |
Terror in Islamabad by Amar Bhushan is a short spy fiction book inspired by true events relating to you the story of an Indian intelligence operative on a diplomatic assignment in the capital city of Pakistan where he is subjected to the savagery by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), although he has committed no indiscretion during his complete course of stay and mission under the constant surveillance of the counter-intelligence team (simply put, without any evidence); an evocative tale offering you a portion of the agonies and terror inflicted upon a courageous agent due to strained Indo-Pak relations makes you aware of the darker shades of their profession that the spies who endure so much pain, live with an unknown danger lurking around all the time, all for the country and still find themselves ignored and unrecognized by the very people who recruited them; this staggering account of the protagonist’s perilous journey will find you in his shoes, anxiously running across pages, negotiating with situations until the very end.
Review
The book is set in
Islamabad in the year 1994. The story starts with the last working day of Veer
Singh at the Indian embassy as a cultural attaché, which is his cover job while
actually working as an agent for India’s External Intelligence Agency under an
assumed name – Amit Munshi. Veer Singh stands apart from all of his predecessors
and maybe his successors. Mr. Singh as an agent has got really unique and out
of ordinary hobbies, and a rather basic modus operandi. He is a practicing tantric,
a discipline he learned during his adolescence. He has got skills for
face-reading and analyzing horoscopes, which helps him in maintaining a good
rapport with the high commissioner and his other colleagues.
The last working day
turns out to be his worst nightmare come true. The formidable enemy – an intelligence agency
that is accused of being involved in 1993 Mumbai blasts, and other terrorist
activities has caught ‘Amit Munshi’ for unwarranted reasons.
The theme mainly
focuses on the vicious interrogation of ‘Amit Munshi’ by ISI goons, but the author
also explains the situation of the Indian diplomats and spies – to start with,
how the protagonist ended up landing a job of a spy in Pakistan. How does he
live surrounded by the counter-intelligence people in disguise, round the
clock; police tailing him around wherever he goes? The book also provides a
basic understanding of the covert operations the agents are expected to do
despite the given circumstances. So it’s obvious, to give you a context, that an
agent’s life is not as happening as we’re shown in the general category of spy
movies or series. This may be fiction but what I loved about this book is that
there is no exaggeration, neither in narration nor in the plot.
The book is considerably short but you will have all your questions answered between two cover pages, whether it’s related to the setting or the storyline. My most favorite part of the book is the vivid portrayal of Mr. Singh’s confrontation with the ISI, which made me realize how fatal this job could be. Not only could I see the world through the protagonist’s eyes, but also my body felt numb as I sat stunned, reading the book without a single pause.
Happy Reading!
