“Commander, Commander, I
have some very good news for you,” The soldier cried as he came running up. He
was out of breath and his body was drenched in perspiration. But didn’t seem to
care.
“Ah, Khalid! It’s been ages since I’ve heard any good news. Quickly, tell what
it is?”
“No!” The Commander cried in disbelief. He could hardly believe his ears. “Yes,
yes. It is true. I have really seen him. I can recognize him in millions.”
“Then that really is very good news. Tell me the details. Can we reach him?” The
Commander asked restlessly.
“Actually, the thing is Commander, that he has changed his appearance quite a
lot. But he couldn’t fool me. I recognized him at once. He’s staying in a very
posh hotel.”
“Excellent! Find out everything about him within a day or two. Don’t leave
anything to chance. We don’t want him to escape this time.”
“But Commander there are four body guards with him.”
“That shouldn’t matter to us.” The Commander said dismissively. “All we want to
do is to catch Rawanda. I don’t care even if I die doing it. We’ve got to catch
him.”
Khalid gave him a smart salute and quickly left the room. Two days later he had
all the information the needed and in its light the Commander had drawn up a
plan. On the third day four men booked two rooms in the hotel where Rawanda was
staying. Luckily the rooms across the corridor had been empty. They could keep
an eye on Rawanda and his guards easily.
That very night they put their plan in to actions. Very quietly, using the
master key, they opened the door Rawands’s room and quickly stepped inside. They
saw Rawanda lying on the bed, fast asleep. The Commander went forward and put
his handkerchief in his nose. There was barely any resistance. The body went
limp.
The Commander’s man had already dressed themselves like Rawanda’s guards. They
held Kalashnikovs in their hands too. One of them rang up the clerk at the
hotel’s counter and told the clerk that one of his companions had suddenly
fallen ill. He had become unconscious and an ambulance must be called
immediately. Saying so he kept the phone down. Using the master key again, the
four of them opened the rooms of the guards one by one and soon they were lying
unconscious too. Now there was no chance that nay one of them, sensing danger,
would raise a hue and cry.
The ambulance arrived and they easily managed to escape with their prey. A few
yards ahead Khalid was waiting with his car. He had parked it in such a way that
there was hardly any space for the ambulance to pass through. The ambulance
driver stuck his head out the window and shouted angrily. “Get out of my way.
You can’t block the road like this.”
“Don’t be angry. My car’s broken down and I can’t move it. Could you come down
and help me push it?”
Muttering rudely under his breath, the driver came down and began to push the
car. As soon as it was out of the way, Khalid’s friends drove off in the
ambulance. The driver ran after them, shouting, “Stop! Stop! Thieves, Stop!”
But they were certainly not going to stop. No way. Khalid caught up with the
driver, overpowered him and put the handkerchief over his nose. He then dragged
the inert form to a tree and laying him down gently said, “I’m sorry I had to do
this, but there was no other way out. You’ll soon become conscious again and
then you can go back to your duty. You will find your ambulance parked nearby.”
Going back to his car, Khalid drove way. Soon all of them were crowded around
Rawanda. He was lying in bed, breathing deeply. At last he opened his eyes and
stared at everyone. His eyes widened with fear as recognition downed upon him.
“Wh…where am I?” he stammered.
“You are where you should be. For a long time now we’ve been waiting for you. We
had given up all hope that you would ever come back here. But now great is Allah
(سبحانہ وتعالیٰ) that he has sent you to our country again. Remember I and my
companions here were in the same prison where you were in charge? I remember
vividly too how ruthless and cruel you were. There was no means of torture you
did not apply upon us, no cruelty which
You did not practise. Mr. Rawanda you had ordered your men to tear off our
beards from our faces, leaving them raw and bleeding. You had left us naked in
our cells with sub zero temperatures outside. While your pilots were raining
down Daisy cutter bombs on our helpless women and children outside, your men
were raining blows with metal sticks upon our defenceless bodies. Your men had
urinated upon our faces and if anyone of us had cried out an agonized “Allah!”
You had thrust his head in shit and told him to eat. Anyone who had recited the
Qur’an was punished with electric shocks to his private parts. Shall I go on?
But what you did is unspeakable. We remember and I think you haven’t forgotten
it too. Can you deny it? Go on, say that I’m lying...that you were only obeying
orders from above. But that won’t get you off, oh no, not so easily. We’ve
caught you at last and now you’ll pay for all you did to us. And don’t worry. No
one’s going to look for you till morning. And let me tell you they can’t rescue
you even then. For one thing we are for away from any locality and for another
we’ll kill you first before letting you go. You see my friends here? See their
hands itching to take revenge? They’ve live for this day. They’ve searched for
you low and wide and now their search’s come to an end. Here my friends, Mr.
Rawanda is all yours.”
“No…no… you can’t do this,” Rawanda shrieked. “I…I…”
“Wait,” The Commander’s man stopped in their tracks.
“We cannot take revenge. Mr. Rawanda, we can’t strip off your cloth, beat you
till you are half dead. Neither can we thrust your face into shit, not apply
electric current to your body parts. We can’t pay you back for what you did to
us, and do you know why Mr. Rawanda? Because our Prophet Sallallahu alaihi
wasallam has ordered us not to treat our prisoners badly. We have been told to
give them the same food we eat and not to abuse or ill-treat them. We have the
right to keep in prison. We shall do that and nothing more. Yes, we will invite
you to accept Islam, it is up to you whether you do or not. Take him away, my
men… deal with him only as our beloved Prophet (صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم) has asked us
to, no more, no less… Yes, take him away.” The Commander’s voice ended on a sob;
tears were flowing from his eyes. His men were crying too… the rain of their
tears dousing the fire of revenge in their breasts.