Karim Jaffrey
Who they are
Zafar Jaffrey’s younger brother, twelve years his junior, radicalised in the years when nobody was watching (C03) and reported killed by a drone-fired Hellfire in August 2016 — except that a body was never accounted for. C11 puts him alive and wanting his old life back, and has his brother buying him a false passport.
He is the book’s quietest threat: not a member of Shin’s cell, not on anyone’s list, and the reason Zafar Jaffrey is vulnerable to a blackmail he has chosen for himself.
Book 5 — London Rules
- C03 — His vetting file is what Devon Welles brings Diana Taverner; the brother who was radicalised.
- C05 — Jaffrey remembers bringing him to the Dewdrop before the radicalisation, already distancing himself.
- C12 — Whelan tells the Prime Minister that Karim survived the strike and wants a new identity; the passport is his.
Open questions
Where he has been since 2016, and whether he is a man wanting to disappear or a man wanting to return. The book says “old life back”, which is not the same as a new one.