KARACHI, July 20: The last terrorist — a novel written by Haider Ali — was launched at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday. Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, who presided over the book launch was the main speaker, while Ali Haider Malik did the compering. Earlier, Salim Ali read out a synopsis of 383-page novel “full of love, romance, sex and the mayhem of war”.

A veteran journalist and an Urdu language columnist, Haider Ali, turned towards English, continued to write columns for the newspapers and now this novel. Dr Siddiqui admired the novelist for writing neat and unblemished English without any shade of Urdu idioms.

The story runs like this: Tariq, a young boy, orphaned during America’s attack on Afghanistan was adopted by an American couple Dave (a journalist) and Sara. Grown up, Tariq, later joined Dave in his journal’s office to work for the “Immigrant voice”. Things were going smoothly but the story took a new turn when Tariq came to know that an Afghan war lord had abducted his sister. Tariq first went to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan. Meanwhile, wooed by Al Qaeda operators, he joined their ranks to avenge the death of their parents by the US raid on Afghanistan. Tariq, insane with grief and rage, commands a freighter carrying a nuclear bomb, heads towards Washington DC, and nukes the capital killing the house of representatives. The constitution is subsequently revoked by the president and martial law imposed in the US.

In retaliation the US nukes Iran, North Koria and north of Pakistan. The world reaches the brink of disaster and the chance of third world war becomes imminent.

In this way, as described above, the novelist awakens the collective conscience to do something to stop the threat of nuclear invasion on the soil of the USA.

Haider Ali, the writer based in New York for the last few decades, in his paper described his apprehension over the ever growing terrorism, its network spread in Pakistan as well.

Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, quoted from the novel, the event of nuclear attack on the US from Pakistani soil and thought it might support the American people in their fear that the attack might come from Pakistan. However, here in lies the advice that Pakistan despite its efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from the country should put in more effort and remove the apprehensions of other people regarding our pious intentions.

Earlier, Azfer Rizvi, an educationist, briefly recalled his long years of friendship with the writer when they were schoolmates in Dhaka. —HA