Purpose of units

Purpose of units? - To root out undesirable elements. Nature of such elements? - Sneaky, well-disguised, could-be-anyone. Known intentions of same? - To be abhorred: destruction of family life, murder of God, expropriation of landowners, abolition of film-censorship. To what ends? - Annihilation of the State, anarchy, foreign domination. Accentuating causes of concern? - Forthcoming elections; and subsequently, civilian rule. (Political prisoners have been are being freed. All types of hooligans are abroad.) Precise duties of units? -To obey unquestioningly; to seek unflaggingly; to arrest remorselessly.
Mode of procedure? - Covert; efficient; quick. Legal basis of such detentions? - Defence of Pakistan Rules, permitting the pick-up of undesirables, who may be held incommunicado for a period of six months. Footnote: a renewable period of six months. Any questions? - No. Good. You are CUTIA Unit 22. She-dog badges will be sewn to lapels. The acronym CUTIA, of course, means bitch.
And the man-dog?
Cross-legged, blue-eyed, staring into space, he sits beneath a tree. Bodhi trees do not grow at this altitude; he makes do with a chinar. His nose: bulbous, cucumbery, tip blue with cold. And on his head a monk's tonsure where once Mr Zagallo's hand. And a mutilated finger whose missing segment fell at Masha Miovic's feet after Glandy Keith had slammed. And stains on his face like a map ... 'Ekkkhh-thoo!' (He spits.)
His teeth are stained; betel-juice reddens his gums. A red stream of expectorated paan-fluid leaves his lips, to hit, with commendable accuracy, a beautifully-wrought silver spittoon, which sits before him on the ground. Ayooba Shaheed Farooq are staring in amazement. 'Don't try to get it away from him," Sgt-Mjr Najmuddin indicates the spittoon, 'It sends him wild.' Ayooba begins, 'Sir sir I thought you said three persons and a -', but Najmuddin barks, 'No questions! Obedience without queries! This is your tracker; that's that.
Dismiss.'
At that time, Ayooba and Farooq were sixteen and a half years old. Shaheed (who had lied about his age) was perhaps a year younger. Because they were so young, and had not had time to acquire the type of memories which give men a firm hold on reality, such as memories of love or famine, the boy soldiers were highly susceptible to the influence of legends and gossip. Within twenty-four hours, in the course of mess-hall conversations with other CUTIA units, the man-dog had been fully mythologized ... 'From a really important family, man!' - 'The idiot child, they put him in the Army to make a man of him!' - 'Had a war accident in '65, yaar, can't won't remember a thing about it!' - 'Listen, I heard he was the brother of - 'No, man, that's crazy, she is good, you know, so simple and holy, how would she leave her brother?' - 'Anyway he refuses to talk about it.' - 'I heard one terrible thing, she hated him, man, that's why she!' - 'No memory, not interested in people, lives like a dog!' - 'But the tracking business is true all right! You see that nose on him?' - 'Yah, man, he can follow any trail on earth!' - 'Through water, baba, across rocks! Such a tracker, you never saw!' - 'And he can't feel a thing! That's right! Numb, I swear; head-to-foot numb! You touch him, he wouldn't know - only by smell he knows you're there!' - 'Must be the war wound!' - 'But that spittoon, man, who knows? Carries it everywhere like a love-token!' - 'I tell you, I'm glad it's you three; he gives me the creeps, yaar, it's those blue eyes.' - 'You know how they found out about his nose? He just wandered into a minefield, man, I swear, just picked his way through, like he could smell the damn mines!' - 'O, no, man, what are you talking, that's an old story, that was that first dog in the whole CUTIA operation, that Bonzo, man, don't mix us up!' - Hey, you Ayooba, you better watch your step, they say V.I.P.s are keeping their eyes on him!' - 'Yah, like I told you, Jamila Singer ..." - 'O, keep your mouth shut, we all heard enough of your fairy-tales!'