Flames And Arrows Read online

18:00 Hours

  26 Oct 2012

  CIA Headquarters

  Langley, USA

  Bill Cosby, CIA's South Asia specialist was still going over his notes when a disheveled CIA chief Richard Cobain walked in to the meeting room. He slumped into a chair closest to the door and just lay there with his eyes closed. After a while he opened his eyes and said in a tired voice, “What are we dealing with here? Any idea who did this?”

  “Four different groups, two each based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, have claimed responsibility for the attack till now. Too soon to confirm anything" Cosby replied

  "I don't care what’s being shown on TV. Who really did it?”

  "There are so many players in this game that it's almost impossible to point out the culprit without any good piece of evidence."

  Richard replied in exasperated tone of voice, “For Christ's sake, I have to brief the president within two hours over this incident. What am I supposed to tell him? Do you want me to report that even after spending billions of dollars on gizmos, spooks and buying loyalties, we don't have any information on who very nearly killed the president of our nuclear armed ally? "

  Sergey Page, a senior analyst replied tentatively, "Actually we do have something that might prove interesting, but we are still missing some pieces of the puzzle. We have evidence of some kind of alliance between PML (N) led by Wasim Akhtar, General Asgar and the Chinese. A large number of PML (N) men have recently received weapons and training from people who we believe work for Pakistani army. We are not exactly sure how this bombing incident will help Wasim Akhtar, but weakening the PPP can pave the way for General Asgar to become even more powerful. But, the thing that's really worrying me is involvement of Chinese”

  "What do you mean?”

  “Chinese have been secretly propping up General Asgar as their man in Pakistan for quite some time now. After Beg started cooperating with us against the Taliban and Al Qaida terrorists, the only way he could survive in Pakistan was with our help. Also, our attacks on their strongholds in Af-Pak region forced many terrorists to move to safer places, the most prominent being the Muslim majority Chinese province of Xinjiang. The recent resurgence of "civil unrest" in Xinjiang is indirectly a consequence of our improved intelligence and tactics in Af-Pak".

  Page paused for breath and then continued, “For the Chinese, somebody they can control will be a much better asset than the current regime headed by Beg. He was supposed to step down from post of army chief last year and hand over the reins to Asgar, but he pulled a fast one by getting himself a 3 years extension. Now, Asgar has no chance of becoming army chief unless something drastic happens.

  "Drastic? Like assassination of the Naqvis?" Cobain half-inquired under his breath.

  Page replied, "Possibly yes! General Asgar is a very resourceful and ambitious man. We suspect that he stuck a deal with Chinese according to which he'll use their influence to gain power in exchange for crackdown on supporters of Uighur separatists in Af-Pak and possibly needling India. His dependence on the Chinese must have increased even more after Beg's newest extension.

  We had no choice except to help Beg prolong his tenure. We really need his cooperation in our war against terror and the only man senior enough to take his place, Asgar was on our list of suspected terrorist sympathisers in Pakistani defence forces that we handed over to Musharraf after 9/11. His links with Chinese and radical Islamists make him very unreliable and detrimental to our interests in the region. In fact, we have proof of his involvement with some militant Islamist groups that we are fighting. Some telephone intercepts suggest that these groups have been attacking PPP cadre on his instructions. "

  “Do you have any concrete evidence to prove involvement of Asgar and Chinese in this?" Richard asked sharply.

  Page was unruffled, “Not yet sir. We do have bits and pieces of evidence that points to some kind of alliance between Asgar, Wasim and Chinese. But nothing substantial that'll prove their involvement with this bombing."

  "Great! Less than 90 minutes before my conference with President, Joint Chief of staff and other biggies start and I have nothing to put on table except wild theories." A frustrated Richards addressed to no one in particular. “Well, gentlemen. From now on, presentation of some solid evidence to back up any theory will be highly appreciated. Thanks for your time."