Diary of a Terrorist - Part IV
I felt a stinging blow on my back and I looked around to see the policeman swinging his rifle at me. I turned and BANG!
I felt the anger drain out with the blood. It was the end... of one era and the beginning of another
With four foreigners in custody, Omar Sheikh sends ransom notes to the embassies and the media. But an unexpected encounter with the police foils the plan. The concluding part of Sheikh’s diaries is about the collapse of his 1994 mission to secure the release of terrorists including Masood Azhar
A photo shoot
I went to the house and told the guys there that I had come to take photographs. Some hours later, after sunrise, Maulana saab went and bought a newspaper. He and Khan saab stood in the background, veiled, with the newspaper and AK-47. Sultan took the photos — six of them.
I went back by train and arrived at Shah saab’s house absolutely exhausted. Farooq was there with him. He told Farooq to take the camera to Ghaziabad and get the same of the American.
I had slept a few hours when Farooq returned with the photos. Shah saab and I then sat down to make adjustments to the letters for the photos. Our deadline was 72 hours, starting from midnight (26th October).
I went off to Kashmiri Gate and speed-posted one letter. Then I went to Daryaganj and faxed another, asking the owner of the shop to turn his back since the contents were confidential.
Next day, I went with Farooq and posted the remaining letters from Connaught Place. Then I returned to Shah saab’s. It was going to be a waiting game, said the Big Man. I was forbidden from leaving the house so I settled myself down to catch up with my Arabic.
For the next couple of days, I stayed with Shah saab. Farooq had gone off somewhere. Amin was with us and would do errands like fetch dinner, etc. Each morning Shah saab went off and came back saying that he had phoned Pakistan and the comrades were still not freed. On the 29th he said that the threat would have to be carried out, so I wrote out the letter to the BBC, VOA, Hindustan Times and British and American embassies.
Shah saab added some more names to confuse the authorities even more. Next day, which was a Sunday, Shah saab instructed me to go to Meerut and post them (in case the authorities put watchers at Kashmere Gate and Connaught Place). I was on the way to ISBT when I decided it wasn’t worth wasting all that time so I got off at Kashmere Gate, took a quick look around to see if any security zones were there, went in and hurriedly got the letters posted all except the ones to the BBC and the HT — since Shah saab and I had agreed they should be hand posted in case the authorities are watching the post at the press organisations.
I deliver the letters
Next morning, I set off with the last two letters. At Shah saab’s instruction, Amin was behind me watching to see if everything went OK. I went to Nizamuddin East but found that the BBC office had moved. A chap there gave me the new address: Rafique Marg. So off I went, Amin behind me, and gave the letter to the rather nice girl at the reception. ‘Tell the Editor I want an answer by 3 p.m.’’, I said thinking tonight she’ll be telling the whole world that this big, monstrous, terrorist-looking sort of chap came to me in person and...Tomorrow I’ll ring her up and say ‘Actually, my dear, I’m not like that at all...
I left the building speedily and went to HT in K G Marg. I found my way to the Chief Editor’s office—he wasn’t there himself so I gave the letter to his public affairs manager and asked him to give it to him. To my consternation, he started opening it. I speedily withdrew from the room and ran down the stairs (I only just refrained myself from sliding down the banister!) and out of the entrance and across the traffic-jammed road where Amin was. We got into a rickshaw and I told him to go to Okhla since Shah saab had instructed me to go to my Okhla hideout and show it to Amin also. On the way, when we got to Nizamuddin, I spied Siddique. So we got off, greeted Siddique and the three of us got on a bus for Okhla. I went to that place in Haji colony which I’d had for over a month but had hardly used. Amin left, Siddique stayed.
For my part, I thought, it was finally over, success or failure lay with Him above. Siddique and I wandered about the nearby roads and talked philosophically and not so philosophically. We talked about Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, and England. We talked about Shah saab and the other comrades and the great days we had had in Inda, the jokes that would be remembered for years to come. He told me about the girl back home he was engaged to, I told him about the one I wasn’t engaged to. We talked about the comrades who’d be getting free any day now... now their families would meet and what they’d be likely to do next. So evening came.
It was just after sunset that Shah saab and Amin arrived. Shah saab told us to get ready. Amin left, Shah saab then said that the American had stopped eating and that we were to go and convince him that it was a matter of a few days only.
We left the boarding house and went towards Jamia Millia. Shah saab asked me as we walked whether it had gone all right and I replied in the affirmative. He cautioned me not to talk about pertinent matters in front of the driver.
The driver and the van were waiting near Okhla ... We got in and sped off toward Ghaziabad. We got down there and instructed the driver to return at 9 o’clock. We got off on the main road and had turned into the lane that takes us to the house when two armed policemen came towards me and asked gruffly who we were and where we were going. I thought it was a routine patrol and asked what the matter was. The policeman swore at me and tried to drag me to one side by the collar—at which I (got) furious and started hitting him. The next thing I remember, I felt a stinging blow on my back and I looked around to see the other swinging his rifle at me—my comrades had disappeared. I turned towards him and BANG!
I felt the anger drain out with the blood. I thought it was the end.
It was the end...of one era and the beginning of another.
Published in Indian Express.
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