“It’s good they killed him before he became CM. Or we would be dealing with a bigger ruin than this. Killed in cold blood right outside his house there,” he tipped his chin to the neighbouring mansion. “I swear, had that not happened then, it would have happened some months down the line, at my hands.”
“Stop stop stop, please, just… you didn’t even know him.”
Round two.
“Oh, I knew him very well. And I know you very well now. Don’t think you can fool me along with everyone else IramHaider…”
She bolted out of the chair and dashed away, the coward.
“Iram!” Atharva’s holler made him turn. But he kept his eyes over his shoulder to see what she would do. She kept going, towards the short wall between the estate and her father’s house. Samar looked on as she jumped across. Pretty neat for a naive little innocent girl.
“What the hell happened?” Atharva caught his shoulder.
“She asked a question, could not take the answer.”
“What did you say to her?” Atharva turned him, seething.
“Why are you concerned? It was an interview.”
“Samar, if you have misbehaved with her…”
“I have not.”
Atharva shoved his shoulder. Hard. And stalked after her. Samar gaped. The lunatic ran and jumped over the wall too, going into that traitor Haider’s house like it was on fire.God, help me save this fool from Iram Haider.
“Samar!” Adil came running out of the house.
“What?!”
“Call your contact in Kishtwar, ask him what’s going on.”
“What happened?”
“A gang war broke out,” Adil held his mobile up.
————————————————————
“…but the Muslims started it…”
Samar heard the conversations around him — Adil, Qureshi, and some of the members that had come into the hall. He kept pinning areas on the map of Kishtwar where disturbances were getting reported.
“What’s wrong?” Atharva’s voice brought all voices to a halt. Samar glanced up, and he was standing there with her. Closer than two co-workers should be.
“Kishtwar is in flames, some Muslims are torching Hindu shops and houses,” Adil announced.
“What happened?”
“It started with a Hindu cycle rider who was trying to make his way through a procession of Muslims going for namaz,” Qureshi started summarising what they were all still piecing together. “He apparently got into a heated argument with the members of the procession. Nobody knows how it happened but anti-India slogans were raised. This led to clashes between the two sides.”
“When.”
“This morning. It’s flared up in no time. The news is still embargoed but things look bad. State government is still ASSESSING the situation.”
“What do your sources say, Samar?”
“That the state security isencouragingthe fight.” Samar gave him a look. He understood. This was looking like an orchestrated disturbance from the areas targeted.
“And our KDP office in Kishtwar?”
