Dateline Islamabad by Amit Barua

Title: Dateline Islamabad
Author: Amit Barua
Publisher: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. (2007)
Pages: 296 (softcover)
Rating: 3 out of 5

Amit Barua was The Hindu’s foreign correspondent in Pakistan between it’s tumultous years of 1997 and 2000.

He was one of only 2 Indian journalists stationed in the country during those times. His writing style is quite fluent, and lacks taking sides for the most part. It’s mostly facts and figures, without the “he said, she said” drama and mudslinging.

The book is worth a read to understand the social and political atmosphere in Pakistan in the times of Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf, as well as the intricate (yet openly flaunted) workings of various terrorist outfits.

Barua also covers the Kandahar kidnapping (using phones only, as he wasn’t allowed out of Pakistan and into Afghanistan due to his 3 entry, 3 exit visa that only covered Islamabad and Karachi).

The fact that every day of his three years in Islamabad were filled with an ISI agent following him around as an espionage suspect only add to the whole atmosphere that he recreates using words.

I gave it a 3 out of 5 as I’m not a political enthusiast. But the book makes good reading if you want to understand what Musharraf and his cohorts are all about, and how he came into being the President of Pakistan.