The Bard of Blood by Bilal Siddiqi Page A

compromised. After being tailed, they were picked up at gunpoint by Mullah Omar’s men. Omar had a simple policy:
Immediate death to spies.
But the ISI thought otherwise, and planned to use the Indians for leverage. And that is how the four RAW agents—Rajveer Bharadwaj, Suraj Agnihotri, Karan Bhatt and Tarun Singh—wound up here. Hanging in an abyss of uncertainty between life and death, fearing that their own country, in all likelihood, was about to disown them.
    ‘I feel surprisingly generous,’ Baradar said, smiling at Bharadwaj. ‘I am going to allow you to choose the way you want to die.’
    ‘F-fuck you,’ a frail voice came from behind. It was Suraj Agnihotri’s voice. He was still half unconscious and completely disoriented. ‘We will die for our country if that is what it takes.’
    Baradar stormed up to him and punched him on the nose. Suraj’s face was already caked with blood, and the punch opened an old gash again. Blood dripped out and Suraj fell back into unconsciousness.
    ‘When the time comes, I’m not so sure we’ll be making such an offer. You’ll die a painful death.’ This time it was another agent, Karan Bhatt. He couldn’t seem to open his swollen eyes.
    Mullah Baradar turned around and fixed his gimlet eye on Bhatt. He strode across to him and kneeled down. He punched him hard. Bhatt felt his tooth loosen, over the taste of blood. Baradar was about to launch another punch into his face when the door opened.
    ‘Enough!’
    Mullah Baradar glanced slowly over his shoulder to see a tall man clad in a black salwar-kameez. He smiled.
    ‘
Salaam aleikum
, Amir al-Mu’minin. It has been a while.’

    They found their way back to the large hall they had usually held their discussions in: the Fayyaz-ul-Uloom madrasa. This madrasa was primarily run by Mullah Baradar, before he was arrested by the ISI in 2010. He had begun to talk covertly to Hamid Karzai’s brother in Kandahar—Ahmad Wali Karzai, who had a local corrupt government running. In fact, the Karzais and Baradar both belonged to the Popalzai tribe of Afghanistan.
    The ISI didn’t like the idea of the Taliban speaking to the Afghan President’s people, much less his brother, without notifying them. The ISI wanted to have control over all the meetings that took place between the Taliban and other groups that were willing to engage with them. The Taliban were their trump card. Therefore, when Mullah Baradar did speak to Karzai’s brother, they arrested him on accusations of being a spy for the Americans by taking five million dollars from the Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA. This, despite knowing that Abdul Ghani Baradar would never double-cross the man he loved like an elder brother, Maulana Mohammed Omar.
    Baradar’s arrest infuriated Mullah Omar. They had fought together, serving in the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet-backed Afghan government in the 1980s. After driving the Russians out, Baradar and Omar jointly founded the Taliban in 1994.
    In November 2001, the US pounded Kandahar with drones, killing almost all of Omar’s men. While the others were escaping, trying to save their lives first, Baradar ran directly into the line of fire and seized a motorbike. He zipped past the cloud of smoke and dust, towards Mullah Omar’s hideout, risking his life. He found a weakened Omar, who was in a state of asphyxiation, helped him sit pillion on the bike, and fearlessly drove him safely into the mountains. After this, they rebuilt the infrastructure of the Afghan Taliban in Quetta, where they now hide in plain sight.
    Baradar has portrayed himself to the world as a loyal lieutenant to Omar, but the reality was slightly different. He’s almost as influential in the Taliban’s decision-making as Omar himself. Being Omar’s deputy, Baradar has a more modern and efficient way of handling matters. This doesn’t mean that he comes down softly on his enemies or avoids bloodshed, but he puts in the extra effort to figure out