A new Pakistan-based political thriller was published by BBC correspondent Owen Bennett-Jones.
Based in Balochistan and London, Target Britain shows both sides of the war on terrorism. Unlike other books that show all militants to be religious fanatics, Target Britain shows how drone strikes can cause havoc in the lives not only of the victims but also their surviving relatives.
As a foreign correspondent for over 20 years and a former BBC Islamabad bureau chief, Owen Bennett-Jones has worked all over Pakistan. Target Britain draws not only on his knowledge of Pakistan but his understanding of the British security establishment.
His previous book, Pakistan: Eye of the Storm, published by Yale University Press and now in its third edition, is read by many foreign diplomats and journalists visiting Pakistan.
Starting with a drone attack on suspected Islamist militants taking refuge in a desert village in Pakistan, Target Britain follows the story of London minicab driver Jaz Khan. The murder of Jaz’s brother, and the mutilation of his body by US soldiers gathering his DNA, sets off a fast-paced contest between Jaz and the West.
Determined to avenge his brother’s death, Jaz sets out to cause as much fear and destruction as he can. By using simple, but devastatingly effective, evasion methods to get around technologies such as CCTV and automatic number plate recognition, Jaz Khan outwits the British security services.
Owen Bennett-Jones has reported for the BBC from over 60 countries and has interviewed presidents, active members of Al Qaeda and many others in between.
Educated at the London School of Economics and St Antony’s College, OxfordUniversity, Owen Bennett-Jones contributed to Lonely Planet’s Pakistan and the Karakoram Highway and has also written for the Financial Times, the Guardian, the New Republic and the London Review of Books.
