Chapter 2 - The Life of a Spy

Mohini remembered how Mushtakh, her cousin helped their family when her father died due to an accident. She was 16 at that time and the eldest amongst the three siblings. Her younger brother Asif, who was only 11 years old had to work in a local factory to earn Rs 2000 a month. The money which was essential for their survival. Her sister was mentally retarded and was barely surviving. After the demise of her husband, her mother started working in other households to support the family. Fiza (Mohini's real name) however was young vibrant and energetic girl who had high hopes about her life and wanted to live to the fullest.

But untimely death of her father shattered her dreams. She remembered how she joined the larger plan of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Mushtakh used to tell her stories about the rivalry with India and occasionally take her to Madrasa and Mosques where religious congregations and hate speeches used to be held. She got influenced by the rhetoric speeches and got entangled in the cause which was build around her. Her family's monetary condition however added fuel to this and thus when Mushtakh offered her this highly paid job of spying, she agreed immediately without even thinking once about the consequences. It's been two years that she has come to India.

During the two years of training conducted by the intelligence agencies she was trained in various fields like use of gadgets, fire arms, understanding importance of documents, passage of information, Hindi language, preparation of documents and coding among the few. But the most important and difficult was the change of religion to Hindu, as they didn't want her to become an obvious target due to her religion. She came to India via Nepal and was made to join a Hindu family who had been residing in Utter Pradesh from last 20 years. She thought that atleast her family back in Pakistan would be living a peaceful life. She however had not spoken to them from last 2 years, only occasionally she is shown their prosperity through some photographs which are destroyed by the fellow agent immediately after showing them to her.

She was feeling morose that she had to live such a life and probably the thoughts were engrossing her insight and she could barely speak as she was under the influence of truth serum, which the officers of the Indian Intelligence Bureau had given her to find truth from her. Moorthy shouted at Rakesh who was trying to get information from Mohini, "Hurry up, we do not have much time". Under the influence of the drugs Fiza could not hide much. But it was time now for her to be sent to her room, before her handler comes to know about her being apprehended by the Indian agents at the hotel. They knew about the latest information she had through Mr Anthony, who had been apprehended and now was in IB headquarters for further questioning.

    

 Fiza woke up late the next morning and that too with a severe headache. She tried to recollect what has happened to her yesterday night. She was wondering as to why didn't the Indian IB officers arrest her? Why is she left in the room? All these questions were thumping her head...She called the room service for tea and some medicine. She was trying to remember what had happened yesterday night. She realised that she was under trouble and her cover has been busted. She was thinking as to what could be the reason of her still being alive or not in their custody. The door bell rang..room service...Rashid as expected came in and poured tea for her and gave her medicine too. It immediately struck her that Rashid is the same waiter serving her from last two days and even during the dinner she had with Mr Anthony, he was there....oh that means I have been followed..

    Rashid interrupted her thoughts and told her that he has an offer for her. Mohini, by now you would know that you are under our surveillance and we would be knowing all your details and we can arrest you and your contacts at anytime...but if you are ready to work for us, then probably your family at Lahore will continue to live peacefully as always...here speak to your mother...she was stunned...her handlers back in Pakistan always wanted to keep her away from her family but here the Indian agent is offering me to speak to my family. She quickly grabbed the phone but could hardly speak ...Ammi...and on both side of the phone there were tears and after a long pause..she heard her mother's voice..they speak for around 10 minutes when Rashid interrupted and told her to hung the phone.

    What do you want? How did you find my family? Why have you not arrested me? Who are you?

The questions were endless and Mohini was loosing patience. In last two years she had been working with calm and composure, even after being under stress and loneliness. Rashid told her about the offer and how she can enjoy the perks of becoming an Indian agent. The phone call to her mom had actually done the trick and she was already mentally prepared to work for Rashid.

    Mohini or should we say Fiza was now a double agent. Her task was to continue giving her handler the information but only to the extent she was allowed by Rashid. She was only contacted when required although she was kept under surveillance. The threat of using double agents always remain at the back of the mind of the intelligence services. But Fiza was converted as she was happy as to how she had been allowed to talk to her family although with extreme caution and under the watchful eyes of Indian agents either physically or through tapping of their phones. Her mother used to tell her about how happy they were now and being taken care of by Husain (unknown to the fact that he was an Indian agent). 

   Rashid and Fiza were like friends now and have been working together for past few years. Fiza once asked her, Why did you become an agent? Rashid although reluctantly but told her that he belongs to a small town in Punjab called Banga. His father is a doctor and mother is a teacher. I was preparing for my eighth class board exams and at that time militancy was at its peak in Punjab. One day I got a call from one of my friends that Hardeep my best friend had been killed by terrorists. Hardeep was four years elder to me and was in twelfth grade, but we shared a lot of commonalities and stayed in the same colony. We became friends being member of the same cricket club. He had been gifted a scooter by his parents on his birthday and had gone to drive it along the canal. He was very happy when his parents informed him about his gift. He was eagerly waiting for his scooter and had plans to roam around on his scooter. He was a very intelligent boy and wanted to a become a scientist. His dreams were big but his life was small. Rashid could not control his tears as he remembered his friend. 

    It was 19th June 1990, the dreadful day, when Hardeep got his gift. He was super excited and went to canal for practicing. He was stopped by two terrorists and they demanded for his scooter. Hardeep would not have let his scooter for any thing. The terrorists forced him by hitting him with the butt of their gun but Hardeep was reluctant and held on to the stepney of his scooter. Terrorists saw some more people coming from a distance and in order to run away, one of the terrorists fired on Hardeep and one of the bullets hit him and the terrorists ran away. He was taken to the Hospital but by that time he had a lot a blood loss and he could not survive. A few days later the scooter was recovered by Police from a near by village. There was a letter from the militants that mentioned about how desperate Hardeep was for his gift and was not ready to let it go. Militants mentioned that they didint wanted to kill him but needed the scooter for carrying out another killing of a Police Officer at Nawashaher, a near by town. The militants also left Rs 50,000 for the parents, little realising that the loss of a young son cannot be compensated by any amount of money.

    This is when I decided that I had to join Defence forces and stop this kind of gruesome acts and if possible stop people from becoming terrorists. As I grew I realised Army or Police is largely responsible to kill or at max apprehend terrorists, but if I join an Intelligence agency, I would get a chance to stop people from becoming terrorists or atleast from killing the innocent public who is in no way responsible for anything, other than suffering the deeds of the terrorists organisations or even the suppression of government. This is how my destiny lead me to becoming a spy. Fiza thought how good his thoughts are and even in her case she has been largely converted due to Rashid and atleast she was not involved in any such gruesome acts of killing innocent people, but who knows how much unknowingly she would have helped the ISI which could have lead to any of such atrocities. 

   Fiza proved her honesty to Indian agents for a number of times now but her greatest help was when she informed Rashid about the Ahmedabad bomb plot.