Ajmal Kasab and Mohammad Naved wanted to cover their failures

It has become a norm in the villages of Pakistan for young boys to take up arms when their fathers tell them that they are failures. If one were to draw a comparison between Ajmal Kasab and Mohammad Naved, we find that their journey into the world of terror is almost similar.

Kasab took up arms when his father refused him new clothes for Eid while Naved entered into the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's world of terror when his father told him he was a failure.

Both Kasab and Naved were grilled extensively by the police and a host of other sleuths and pretty much paint the same picture giving similar reasons as to why they entered into the world of terror.

Kasab and Naved reminded of their failures

Kasab who did nothing much with his life was forced by his father to join him in his business. Kasab's father would sell food on a cart on the streets. Kasab was asked to join his father and help push the cart around.

However, Kasab like any other teenager demanded that he be given new clothes for Eid and when his father expressed his helplessness and even shouted at him for demanding, Kasab decided that he would fend for himself.

Naved on the other hand was the only member of his family who did nothing. His two brothers are in respectable jobs while his sister studies. Naved's father Mohammad Yakoob is a farmer by profession.

Going by Naved's account to the National Investigating Agency, his father would insult him for doing nothing. He even beat on a couple of occasions and told me that I was a misfit. This had hurt me no end and I wanted to do something that would make me powerful, he also said.

In the case of Kasab, it was the money more than the power which lured him into the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. He was happy that he was given jeans and T-shirts to wear. Moreover the gun in his hand also made him good, he had told his interrogators after his arrest.

The Lashkar sells dreams

For youth such as Kasab and Naved, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is the one stop solution to fulfil their dreams. This outfit is powerful, rich and can make you famous. They are ready to offer an obscene amount of money and even assure that the families would be looked after in case anything were to happen to their fighters.

The streets of Pakistan are buzzing with recruiters of the Lashkar. They want the youth preferably in the age group of 16 and 20. These boys are gullible, ask very few questions and just go about the job. Boys in this age group are also in awe of guns and power and would want to live their lives like a video game.

Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that the Lashkar is like a dream merchant in Pakistan. They have recruiters who are extremely convincing and for each age group they deploy a different strategy.

For the likes of Kasab and Naved over-preaching the Jihadi ideology and the Kashmir issue would really not make much of sense. All they would say is, " go kill, come back and live like a king," or to put it in typical Bollywood style, " life bana doonga."

The Lashkar particularly looks for youth who are failures. It is always easier to rope them in. Dreams are sold with the lure of power, money and good clothes. Jeans are a particular favourite with most of the recruits such as Kasab and Naved.

What they do not know is that they will die

If one were to look at both the Naved and Kasab case, both felt that they would not die. They were constantly told that they would come back once the job is undertaken.

These are hardened terrorists, no doubt, but they have not signed up for the Lashkar so that they could die. Both were promised the good life upon successful completion of the task.

Call them stupid or naïve, but going by the interrogation reports of Naved and Kasab both say that they felt they would return to Paksitan and lead a good life.

We were offered a lot of money and told that after this assignment, life would be good. The Lashkar top brass does suggest an exit plan for every terrorist at the planning stage itself. However even the top brass are fully aware that only 1 out of every 10 terrorist that they send to India returns to Pakistan alive.