When love lures militants to death

JAMMU: Love hurts. But if you''re a terrorist who spends his life in the shadows, it can kill too. That''s what happened to Abu Ikramah. A member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, infamous for his callous, brutal attitude towards women, Ikramah underwent a transformation when he met 16-year-old Najma.
If this had been a feel-good film of the kind now raking in so much moolah for Bollywood, the story might have had a happy ending.Life, of course, works out somewhat differently.
To begin with, Ikramah tried to possess Najma by eliminating all obstacles in the way. His preferred modus operandi: slitting their throats. The body count grew, but Ikramah was not getting anywhere and his longing for Najma began to take its toll. He began shirking his deadly duties, complaining to his mentors across the border of blackouts and dizziness. No help or sympathy was forthcoming from that quarter: his controllers sarcastically told him to get some jhar-phook (magic charms) performed on himself.
At this point, Ikramah broke. He contacted intelligence agencies in J&K and offered them a deal. "Give Najma and me safe passage to Pakistan," he effectively said, "and I''ll give you the names of the most wanted terrorists operating in the area." No response was forthcoming. In desperation, Ikramah upped his offer. Now, he was willing to reveal everything that he knew about the LeT network.
It wasn''t to be. The clock was ticking for Ikramah; on January 7, time ran out for him. Finally cornered, he went down in a hail of bullets — a bloody climax to a tale of terror twisted by tender love.