Its time to PAY BACK!!. Review on Lashkar - Mukul Deva

Mukul Deva, an alumnus of La Martinere College, Lucknow, and NDA Pune, and IMA Dehradun, he served in the Sikh Light Infantry of Indian Army, and opted for premature retirement after gaining the rank of Major, and now writing books, fiction and non-fiction. His other publications include Time After Time, STRIPTEASE – The art of corporate warfare, MODEL – The return of the employee. This book is first in its series, and followed by Salim Must Die, Blowback and Tanzeem. His latest book is ‘The Dust Will Never Settle’. He also own security services MSD Security Services, HQ in New Delhi, and operates in over 58 cities in India.

@deepak27 sir suggested me this book last month, when I was looking for a book to order, and now after 16 days, I completed it and found it a really good read, and probably I will be ordering the 2nd book ‘Salim Must Die’ soon. This book also marks my debut on Homeshop18, tried them for the first time and found them good on first impression, I ordered it on 24th sept, and got this book in 3 days and it costs me Rs.131 (cheapest on any site). The book goes for 363 pages, and is published by Harper Collins, and I must say thanks to Deepak sir, as because of him I found another worthy Indian author. The book is divided into two parts “The Terror Begins” and “The Counter-Attack”, chapters are titled and is divided into timelines; now let’s see the plot of this book-:

On 29th October 2005, bombs rock Delhi, and some Pakistani-trained Terrorists slipped into Indian Border, all are young men, and many are picked up from India, so as to support their so-called jihad. Iqbal is the lead, a trained-young guy who got his education from La-Martinere Lucknow, and he is a well-educated guy. When he moved to Delhi to do a diploma, he was spotted by a maulavi of a mosque and he got a call to enlist in the LASHKAR alongwith many others, he had a zeal, and he want to experience thrill, and soon, he alongwith others got brainwashed in Pakistani terrorist camp at Muzaffarabad. When the party crossed the border, only two survives – Iqbal and his friend Omar, and they get back to their houses, they were not supposed to do anything else, unless they were called for any purpose. After reaching home, Iqbal come to know that the Bomb blasts of delhi has claimed the lives of his loving mother and sister, and he suddenly changed and understand the agenda of Pakistan behind jihad, he stands guard and swore to kill each and every person who is related with the bombings. On the other hand, this time Indian PM also decided to strike Pakistan in the same way they use to do, and a secret commando group FORCE 22, headed by Col. Rajan Anbu, is called for a mission, their mission – TO KILL ALL TERROSIST RESPONSIBLE FOR BOMBINGS, alongwith some top terrorist leaders. And then the FIGHT STARTED!

As you have seen from the plot, this is a terrorism-based thriller, terrorism which has become a grave problem for the world now-a-days, and I must say, the book is written wonderfully. It is fast, action-paced and detailed thriller. It is divided over timelines, and that too are inter-mingled, but the reader will get it straight soon, though at starting he needs some references to other pages (like I did), confusion occurs. Different timelines are working together and all the scenes are sewn together nicely. Not a moment of boringness, and it paced like a Super-fast train. Detailing is quite good, may be the knowledge credited to the army background of author, but he has given quite impressive description of landmarks, areas and happenings in Pakistan and India, the combat knowledge is good too, and it’s in the level of the readers. It’s a hard impacting book, and anyone who considers himself Indian should read this book, as a true Indian always knew what India has faced through terrorism’s hands, and everybody wants reaction from Indian counterparts, which is not happening. At times and places, the acts looks more ambitious, as everything goes the Indian way, but nonetheless that is what reader wants to read. Had the Indian politicians work this way, I think that any terrorist will think twice before striking our country.

This is a good hard-hitting book to read, if you’re interested in action-thrillers. I found a tag on the top of book cover which says “SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE’, well now I am eagerly waiting for the movie adaptation of the book, let’s see how it fairs, for now, I recommend this book with 3.5/5 rating.

GRuchirG

Jai Raam ji ki :)