Five Indian agents in the Lashkar-e-TaibaIt is 1996. A fifteen-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba fidayeen crosses over to India from Pakistan. When officer Shekhar Singh of the Counter Terrorism Cell captures and interrogates him, he makes a startling revelation. The terror group has begun sending men to settle down in India in the guise of regular civilians. On the sly, they are to serve as outposts for its missions and destroy the country from within.Stunned but n...

Dongri to Dubai is the first ever attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai mafia. It is the story of notorious gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem, but above all, it is the story of a young man who went astray despite having a father in the police force. Dawood Ibrahim was initiated into crime as a pawn in the hands of the Mumbai police and went on to wipe out the competition and eventually became the Mumbai police’s own nemesis.The n...

A journalist's account of investigating Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his empire of exploitation How did a nondescript young man from a farming family become the head of a quasi-religious sect with a million followers willing to die and kill for their 'Pitaji'? The story of the rise of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan of the wildly popular Dera Sacha Sauda is anything but ordinary. It allegedly involved sexual exploitation, forced castrations, private militias, illegal trade in arms and opium, and la...

Pointing to the horizon where the sea and sky are joined, he says, 'It is only an illusion because they can't really meet, but isn't it beautiful, this union which isn't really there.' -- SAADAT HASAN MANTO Sometime in 2016, a series of dialogues took place which set out to find a meeting ground, even if only an illusion, between A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani. One was a former chief of RAW, India's external intelligence agency, the other of ISI, its Pakistani counterpart. As they could not m...

The Siege by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark - a searing account of the 2005 terrorist attacks at Mumbai's famous Taj HotelOn 26th November 2008 the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai is besieged by Pakistani Islamists, armed with explosives and machine guns.For three days, guests and staff of the hotel are trapped as the terrorists run amok.On 29th November commandos launch Operation Black Tornado. The world holds its breath.The Siege is a h...

Winner of the Crossword Prize for non-fiction, ‘“Curfewed Night’” is a passionate and important book – a brave and brilliant report from a conflict the world has chosen to ignore.' Salman RushdieBasharat Peer was a teenager when the separatist movement exploded in Kashmir in 1989. Over the following years countless young men, fuelled by feelings of injustice, crossed over the Line of Control to train in Pakistani army camps. Peer was sent off to boarding school in Aligarh to keep o...

The shocking true story of a brutal kidnapping high in the mountains of Kashmir that marked the beginning of modern terrorism.In July 1995, ten backpackers journeyed into the foothills of the Himalayas, trekking to an idyllic campsite known as the Meadow. But their search for tranquillity was savagely interrupted when they were taken hostage by Islamic extremists.Using diaries, letters, classified police reports and interviews with the jihadis themselves, The Meadow traces ...

Since 1989, when the separatist movement exploded in Kashmir, more than 70,000 people have been killed in the battle between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Born and raised in the war-torn region, Basharat Peer brings this little-known part of the world to life in haunting, vivid detail..Peer reveals stories from his youth as well as gut-wrenching accounts of the many Kashmiris he met years later, as a reporter. He chronicles a young man’s initiation into a Pakistani training camp...

On some days, you are no less than Sherlock Holmes. But on others, you are just a regular policeman on bundobast duty. Me against the Mumbai Underworld is the story of Isaque Bagwan, three-time recipient of the President's Police Medal for Gallantry and a small-town boy who pursued his big-city dreams and ambitions as an upright police officer. Bagwan, who is credited with carrying out the first encounter in the history of Mumbai Police, was witness to several of the city's defining moment...

‘Who is bigger than the King?’ Dawood Ibrahim went undercover after the serial blasts of 12 March 1993 in Mumbai. Nobody knew how he had managed to escape from India while his D Company had proven links to the blasts. Yakub Memon was subsequently executed, resulting in the bloody split of the Mumbai Mafia. What happened to Dawood Ibrahim then? Where is he now? As these questions began to surround, S. Hussain Zaidi’s riveting investigation led to Karachi, where Dawood is now the Kingmaker. ...

26 November 2008. Ten highly motivated and trained terrorists, armed with guns, grenades and improvised explosive devices, slip past coastal security cordons on India's western seacoast in a fishing trawler. They board a rubber dinghy and disembark at Machhimar Nagar, Colaba, Mumbai. Over the next three agonizing days, India's 'Maximum City' is brought to its knees as the fidayeen wreak unprecedented havoc at pre-selected landmarks, holding India's commercial capital hostage. The 26/11 att...

Dangerous Minds will delve into the complex and intricate lives of some of the most talked-about terrorists of the country. Dr Jalees Ansari, a doctor from Malegaon involved in eighty blasts, including some on railway tracks, was supposed to be a quiet, peace-loving medical professional. Fahmida Ansari, a housewife and mother of two from the Jogeshwari slums of north-west Mumbai, physically planted the bombs herself in a bus and taxis and returned home as if nothing had happened. What drov...