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How this book, Al-Qaeda, almost created an International Incident!

Some time ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic became a popular pastime to scare your children with, I took this book with me on my travels across Asia. There was a specific reason for this book, I wanted to read about the so called ‘War on Terror� which the former US President George Bush had aptly catch phrased and I simply wanted to know more.



It won’t come as a surprise to the seasoned traveller that my journey was fabulously exciting that I rarely got a chance to open the cover page and thought to myself, I may have to wait until I return back to England before I will read this book. Island hopping across the South China seas was far more fun than sitting in one place and reading what could essentially be a serious read. Reading about men in turbans, dusty beards and baggy bedsheets didn’t really fill me with great deal of enthusiasm. Very soon I was on the final leg of my journey which ended up in Kashmir and found myself too busy meeting old friends and family and I completely forgot that I actually had this book.

Whilst I was preparing for my flight home, I found that due to Pakistan’s endemic corruption in the airline industry, it was found by the authorities that many of the Pakistani airline pilots held forged flying documents, that they had never passed any pilot exams; my flight had been cancelled and I couldn’t get to rebook it for a few week.



This created a problem for me as I was starting a new job the following week so I was in a panic mode and decided to book another flight with a different airline, flying from Karachi airport rather than from Islamabad airport as originally planned. The problem was, Karachi was nine hundred miles away and therefore, I would be arriving in Karachi at 2.00pm and my connecting flight wasn’t until 3.00am the following morning.

I don’t know if anyone has ever flown from Karachi, but it is not a city you want to travel around alone, if some bandit doesn’t rob you, the Karachi cops will have you hanging by your toe nails until the change drops out of your pockets.



Anyway, the problem I found myself in was a 12 hour wait at Karachi airport and not exactly sure what I would do for such a long period. The airport itself was about the size of a bus station so my options were very limited. However, there is always a silver lining and this came to be in the guise of a very kind and attractive Karachi cop named Amina. I told her my predicament and asked where I could safely spend the next 12 hours while I wait for my connection.



Amina simply smiled and said follow me and took me around side of the airport terminal, up three flight of stairs and into the airline staff canteen and said this is a 24-hour canteen and if anyone asks, just say you’re a flight official and then left me pondering my next step.

Nervously I took a seat in the furthest corner of this sizable eating place and trying to blend into the background as much as possible.

Whilst sitting there with a cup of cold Pakistani tea, a dried piece stale bread and some almost frozen butter. I was contemplating how I could get away with sitting in one place, where I clearly did not belong, for the next dozen or so hours. Anyway, as luck would have it, I remembered by book, Al-Qaeda!



Now, considering that for almost 6 weeks I found no opportunity to read this book and the only time I was forced to consider Jason Burke’s book was in a middle of George Bush’s ‘War on Terror� in a country that was on the front line in this fight with the so-called terrorist organisation called Al-Qaeda, in a city which has been regularly designated as one of the 10 most violent cities in Asia and with an equally corrupt police force. And I am sitting in an Airport staff lounge reading a book called Al-Qaeda whilst pretending to be an airline official. It really couldn’t get any worse� or could it?

At one point I noticed that a curious looking waiter was continually looking in my direction, his expression was bleak I instinctively knew whatever he was thinking wasn’t going to be good. Eventually he walked over and began to rearrange the cups and spoons on the table and gently leaned forward and asked me about my book. He remarked that this isn’t the best place to read such a book as everyone was already hyper tense. I explained that I was an airline official and I had another 10 hours of waiting time and without having anything else to do, what should I do about this book. He simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away. A few minutes later a couple of police officers arrive with sticks in hand and asked me who I was. I explained very nervously that I was an airline official and began to enlighten them with my story and how a colleague of theirs called Amina bought me here and said it was okay to wait. They asked if I had any ID confirming my airline officialdom. Things were not looking good for me at this point! I said no and then I told them their colleague told me to say this. At this point, they too grunted something, whispered to the waiter and walked away.



I was now beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable and I was hoping the next person will be Amina who will come along and take me out of this increasingly bad situation which she put me in, but I was very wrong. The next people were several security officers in full combat gear pointing guns at me and asked me to stand-up and put my hands behind my head and remain still. While this commotion was going on the waiter had his camera out and taking pictures and behind him was Amina standing and watching. I tried to explain my predicament to the men with guns but I was firmly told to remain quiet. At this point Amina came over and spoke to one of the combat officers and after some time they said that as long as I remain in my seat and put away anything that can be seen as a security threat I was free to remain. And firmly told me to stop masquerading as an airport official. I tried to give them my Al-Qaeda book and said this is all I have and they were welcome to have it. They declined my offer. So, I put it back in my bag and waited patiently for my flight.

Oh, I forget to tell you about the book. I did finally finish the book when I got back home and it was a complete hogwash but, the adventure that it caused was worth every penny of the purchase price.