The blood-stained walls

Fiction: By Ilyas Baloch

It was probably the last scream of an innocent soul that woke her up. There were often sound of screams but she was not use to all this. It was the first night of 11 years old Droshum in this hell, today the infinite story of barbarism has taken few pages for her life too.

Two hours earlier she was raped and then thrown unconscious. Her shattered wounded body was in extreme pain because of internal wounds and the broken nose by falling on her face, her blood had frozen on her cheeks and on the ground.

Opening her eyes in a darkest cell made her to think that she might have lost her eyes-sight in that tragedy and then she saw a foggy light sparkling underneath the door of the cell. May be that was a search light in hand of soldier outside the cell. she didn’t see the light perfectly because of here swollen eyes. As she was coming in her senses, she felt the increase in pain in her shattered body which forced her to cry.

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When frightened Mahekan made a move to look after her, Droshum realized that she was not the only one in this hell, there were more half-dead bodies who were hiding in a corner of Cell to protect themselves from the extreme cold in February. There were no heating facilities in their cell. The heating was only available at officer’s room where these sisters were raped time and time again. The girls were wishing for death to get rid of the continuous humiliation.  But the barbarous soldiers were wouldn’t care about the lives and honour of sisters and mothers of this SLAVE NATION. The savage army predator considered these girls as their hunt and treated the sisters worse than animals. They were kept for months in the dark cells to satisfy the lust of army beasts. Most of the abducted girls were shivering from the extreme cold and many were starving themselves so they could die soon.  The ones who had survived the cold, had bear the bitter time of their lives till pregnancy when a girl gets pregnant, the soldiers would kill her and then throws her dead body to their dogs. Death was the only path that led them to freedom from this hell.

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Mahekan was also one of these victims who was waiting for her death to be free. She was a student of university who was abducted from her village. The cry of innocent Droshum was not bearable for Mahekan. She slowly crawled toward Droshum and try to console her, even crying was not allowed in that cell because if the soldiers her the cry, they would come in and torture her more. Mahekan came up to ask Droshum to quite but she was unaware of Droshum’s wounds. When she tried to lift her head, she felt the wound of Droshum’s neck. Droshum screamed loudly in pain! Mahekan immediately put her hand on Droshum’s mouth to prevent the sound of her scream to be heard by anyone outside the torture cell because she what will happen, if they her heard cry. Mahekan managed to lift her head and put it her lap and started caressing her hairs with one trembling hand.

Due to cold temperature Droshum’s pain was increasing. she wanted to weep as loud as she could but may be screaming a lot that night made lose her voice that’s she couldn’t cry out loud.

After a while Droshum was calm and Mahekan tried speak with her very softly.

Who are you?  Where you belong from? What happened to you?

Droshum broke into tears as she could not describe the horrible things that they did to her and Mahekan continued to request to stop crying as it would only make things worse for her. She eventually started introducing her while still crying.

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My Name is Droshum and I am from Surab, I was traveling back from Karachi in a passenger coach with my brother. On the way our bus was intercepted by a convoy of FC (frontier crops). They entered climbed the bus and shouted at everyone to get off. They were misbehaving and disrespecting women, children and elderly men.

“They checked everybody’s ID cards, there were also plain-clothed officials of secret agencies with them who were wearing black masks to cover their ugly faces. They lined up some young boys including my brother and started questioning them. They asked different questions before my brother could give an answer the intelligence officer slapped him and ordered the uniformed soldiers to take my brother away with them. My Brother refused to go, they started punching and kicking him, beating him butt of their riffles, finally they forced him on the ground and some official set on him. I thought my brother would suffocate to death. So, I went to save my brother. They turned to me and kicked me on my chest. I too fell on the ground; I was so worried about my brother that’s why I didn’t feel any pain. all I was thinking was to save my brother somehow. I once again advanced toward and ran after him. One of the plain-clothed officer turned back and ordered the soldiers to take that girl too she could be a potential problem for us later.  The soldiers held me by my arms and feet and dragged me into the dark windows vehicle. They blindfolded me with a piece of cloth. Now I could only hear voice and guess what was happening.

One of the officials said something in Punjabi language and then I heard my brother screaming loudly. I thought they might have killed my brother, then someone held my arms and made me sniff a substance me. Soon after that I lost became unconscious.

Droshum was crying and whining while telling her story, Mahekan was listening to her quietly, she was not surprised by her story because she previously heard worst stories than her.

When Droshum regain consciousness, she was in extreme pain because her captors had tied the cloth very tightly on her eyes and it pierced the skin of her nose.

Despite all the pain and suffering I was still worried about my brother. I started crying and shouted for him. One of the soldiers who was standing near me, he mimicked my sound and then they all started laughing at me. They told me by now the Sir (their boss) have cut your brother in pieces.  After hearing this I could not control myself and I started screaming loudly, they were continuously laughing at me, they were laughing so hard that I could not even hear my own screams. Then I heard the sound of boots as if someone was walking toward me, the soldiers next to me stopped laughing and they were now dead silent.

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A man entered the room and the inkling sound of boot started to come closer to me. Suddenly, he kicked me so hard that my head crashed against the wall, then he said something in Punjabi language. I recognised his voice it was the same official who earlier ordered my brother and my abduction. At this point one of officer ordered a soldier to untie my eyes. The soldier immediately did so. As soon as I opened my eyes I realised that I was in a torture cell in an army detention facility.  There were blood stains all over the walls. It was as if all the stains wanted to tell me their stories of suffering, pain and humiliation. They wanted to tell me how these savage soldiers smashed heads of these innocent people against the wall before killing them. There were nails on wall with human flesh hanging from them. There were bare electric wires hanging along with blood-stained ropes. These ropes, I assumed, were used to hang people and torture them and the electric wires were used for giving shocks to victims of abduction.  At corner of the room some distance from me I saw a bloodied and under this chair human nails and pieces flesh were scattered. Behind the chair there were bullet marks on the wall. On the floor there were signs of people being dragged out of the room and blood stains followed the signs of dragging. I released that they had killed someone very recently. Near the chair there was long table and on it there were different tool including very sharp object for the purpose of torturing the detainees. I was wishing to get closer to the table and pick up any of the sharp objects and stab these cruel people to avenge my brother.  I was no more scared of them but my hands tied very tightly behind my back due which they were numb. I was not even able to stand properly.

The Army officer ordered the soldiers to bring him here. I had no idea that whom he was talking about. I was still staring at different places of the room and imagining the pain and torture that people were subject to in that place. The place where these cruel official had tortured several innocent people to death. Was there a limit of torturing innocent people? I was lost in deep thinking when I suddenly saw the soldiers bringing my brother with them. They were pulling him and beating him. He was half conscious, they had taken of his shirt. I barely recognised him because as his face was bleeding. They slit hid body on several place with a sharp tool, several fingers of his tied up hands were crashed possibly by a hammer.  When I saw him in this condition, I wished for his death because I didn’t want him to suffer more torture. I knew what was going to happen next. The soldiers threw him on the floor on his face. Then army officer walked closer to him, grabbed his hair and lift his face off the ground.

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Why do you people love to die like this, the army officer asked Droshum’s brother.  I promised you everything even your protection but you didn’t reveal your secrets. We have tortured you so much but you’re still silent. You still have time to tell what you have or else your sister will see what will happen to you but you will not be around to see what will do to your sister.  Droshum’s brother could have revealed his secret to save her but he decided to remain silent. He knew if he tells them his secrets, his intellectual friends will also suffer the same fate as him. This would also create more handles and obstacles in the way of freedom movement. His speaking to the officials could also put the lives and dignity of thousands of other sisters at risk.

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The officer ordered the soldiers to beat my brother more. I if they were waiting to this and quickly they attacked my brother. They were beating him with butts of their riffle’s and kicking him with long boots on his chest and head. My brother tried to cover himself with his roped tied hands and huddled himself laying there. Seeing my brother in pain, I tried to move toward him to save him but a solider behind me pulled me by my hairs and threw me to the other corner the room where a nail on the wall injured my neck. I was crying and begging them to have mercy on my brother. In my heart I was also heartily praying to God to soften the stone-like heart of these torturers. The painful screams of my brother were continuously increasing. After a while the officer asked the soldiers to stop and grabbed my brother’s hairs and pulled him upwards. The wounds which were frozen started bleeding again. The officer asked my brother, how many people were there in his organisation and what was their next plan?

physically my brother was weak but mentally he was hard to break, he had decided to remain silent on the questions.

getting no answers from my brother made him angrier, he was abusing his own soldiers and he was looking very helpless too because he was getting nothing from my brother. The outraged officer set down on the chair with an obvious look of helplessness on his face. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. His head was down and he was holding his forehead with one hand. He was thinking of new medium of torture to coerce my brother into giving in to their torture.

The obvious look on his helplessness was telling me that these people are suffering from a psychological defeat. He could no longer conceal his frustration. Despite all pain and suffering, I imagining that the countless ambushes attacks of freedom fighters have turned these foreign aggressors into war psychos.  Despite calling themselves the best army and the best intelligence agencies. They were nothing but a bunch of liars and cowards.

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The officer continued to scratched his head and think for a while then suddenly he looked at me. The calm at my face and helpless on his further enraged him and increased his tension. He stood up from the chair, came closer to me and grabbed my hair and lifted in centre of the torture cell. I could see, despite torturing me, he was trembling.

He opened my hands and turned back to my brother saying if don’t talk then see what I’m going to do to your sister before your eyes. My brother was so angry. I had never in my life seen my brother so angry. If his he was not tied and forced on the ground by so many soldiers, he could have beaten all of them. I could see the fear in the eyes of these brutal soldiers and their officer.

My brother was shouting at them and calling them bastards production of Heera Mandi. He was telling them if you’re real men then leave my sister alone and come beat or do whatever you want to do to me.  He was trying get up but the evil forces of darkness had paralysed his body because they could not stop him. He was very weak because of continuous bleeding. He did not have enough energy to get up and they soldiers were also still sitting on him.

The officer started sexually harassing me and laughing at helplessness of my brother. I was crying and trying to protect myself but the officer was slapping me on my face again and again. I wished to cry as loud as I could but I was unable to even cry. Their mediums of step by step painful torture had made my eyes dry. When and how my Duppata (head scarf) slipped off my head to my neck and when my clothes were ripped off up to my shoulder. I didn’t know of that.

My brother consistently trying to save me but the lustful officer wanted to mentally torture my brother to somehow break him get information.

He forwarded his hand towards me to grab my clothes in an effort to rip them off.  I managed to push his hand back which made him mad and angry. He slapped me twice on my face and ordered his soldiers to hold my hands two soldiers came up and held my hands. Then the shameless officer pulled my duppata (head scarf) from my neck and moved closer to me. I spitted on his face because I had no other way to protect myself from that beast.

He helpless and outrageous officer was continuously slapping me and punching me as hard as he could and then he scratched one of my eye with his hand. All this time my brother was very angry and he was chanting.

“DOWN WITH PAKISTAN”

As the soldiers beat him, he started shouting the same slogan even louder. The officer was so angry and helpless at the same time that he ordered to his soldiers, “Kill that Balochi dog.”

The soldier took a hammer and struck my brother’s head several times. He fell on the ground and there was a fountain of blood spreading around the small room. That how they silenced my brother and ‘saved’ their Pakistan.

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Mahekan was listening to Droshum’s tragic story and fighting to stop her tears. She was lost in her thoughts so much that she forgot to grab Droshum mouth with her hand to prevent her crying voice out of the cell. She was remembering the harassments her own two martyred brothers.

Mahekan was abducted earlier months along with her two brothers and one sister in a routine search operation. She didn’t even know her sister is alive or not. Her younger brother was tortured and later on burnt in seething acid, her other brother was killed in a staged encounter.  She was lost in thoughts of her brother and the gruesome way they were killed as she heard a girl screaming from a nearby cell. Mahekan tried to listen in and concentrate on the voice to recognise her, she has been doing this frequently. She wanted to make sure if it was her sister’s voice and that if he was still alive.  She has been praying for the death of every detainee there because she knew being alive means more suffering, pain and humiliation.

The scream that Mahekan was trying to identity had increased as she was being brutally tortured by the soldiers of darkness but suddenly the voice of the sister was silent with a falling sound of a metal object. A silence occupied her head for few moments thinking about how what kind of torture she had to go through before being silenced forever.

After a while Mahekan tried to break her silence by asking Droshum some more questions but there was no reply and as she looked down. Poor Droshum was dead! Maybe it was the last powerful scream of the girl in next cell which rip off Droshum’s heart.

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Mahekan was not upset on the death of Droshum because she didn’t want to see any innocent being held in that hell. But even then she could not control her tears on brutal murder of innocent people. She wanted nothing but to know what happened with Droshum after the martyrdom of her Brother. She just wanted to know the name of that great brother and brave freedom fighters who sacrificed his life and his sister life to protect thousands of his like-mined friends and other dignity of other sisters and mothers.

Mahekan leaned back against the wall started thinking in her state of helplessness and senselessness of her nation.

What is the psyche of this semi-conscious nation which is neither awake nor asleep? This nation is intoxicated with slavery and the intoxication of slavery has made them so apathetic that they are aware of everything they explain their helplessness and they claim to be slaves but they do nothing to get rid of their slavery but sit idle and wait for a miracle. They wait for others to take the responsibility of action. Why they forget as being a slave they are also a part of this war, they have to fight and they will fight someday at some point. Here youth finding employment day and night eventually end up committing suicide because of year of unemployment.

Instead of starving himself to death or committing suicide they don’t they do something against the enemy who is playing with the honour of his nation’s sister and mothers. In this nation  a man being slapped on FC check posts seeing her sister and mothers being disrespected and by seeing bullet riddled bodies of the youth of his Nation gets awareness of slavery he goes with the demand of freedom to protest and rallies but why does he forgets the harassments on Nation how they forget the promise the he made to the blood of Martyrs to fulfil  their mission just by a good behaviour of a government official the same enemy and then he celebrates the 14 august cheerfully.

What about the fighters who fight for years against the enemy and then leaves for some personal interest and for some concessions? Why are people being so mistrustful to the Freedom Movement that they are cheerfully living with slavery

Is this all due to the wrong decisions of leadership?

Their race of being leader damaged the Freedom Movement that we have come back where we started.

Will they be held accountable for playing with the Movement with a toying manner?

Who will question them? and will they give answers?

How many years or centuries we need to reunite our powers and to making a strong based Freedom Movement?

Different kinds of thoughts and disappointments were teasing her mind but she was satisfied with the struggle of those unknown Freedom fighters who are somewhere part of the struggle sincerely and fuelling the Movement by their blood honestly. if they cannot give us freedom at least they will give a strong Movement to the upcoming generation’ hands.

Mahekan was lost in thoughts when suddenly a soldier opened the door. He has a search light in his hand, trampling the dead body of Droshum. He grabbed Mahekan by her hair and pulled her to the room of the boss – the army officer.

The end