Mumbaistan by Piyush Jha Read Free Book Online Page B

by someone inside.
    ACP Hani now turned towards his deputies and made some hand signals. The deputies started crawling in the direction of the team clusters. The team members showed signs of pushing their alertness up a few notches. Tanvir, confused at this action all around, crawled towards the ACP and whispered in his ear, 'What is happening?'
    The ACP ignored him but Tanvir persisted. 'What are you doing?'
    The ACP turned towards Tanvir, irritated as before, but this time there was an edge to his voice that Tanvir found very dangerous. 'Your Rabia might have gone over to their side.'
    Tanvir's face fell. 'But...but...she won't do that...please wait a little while more.'
    The ACP seemed firm, 'I have to attack, or this chance, too, will be lost.'
    He turned to check if all the clusters were ready and was about to give the signal to fire when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice coming through a loudspeaker. 'Shame on you police-wallahs, you hide and send a woman to face danger. Innocent people of our qaum have been ill-treated by you vardiwallas for too long.'
    The ACP and his squad were ready for battle before the sentence was over. The taxi driver sprang out of his seat with a drawn gun and took cover behind the taxi. The sentry on duty shrank into a corner, confused and fearful. The ACP kept trying to identify the source of the voice, but he couldn't make anything out. The voice continued, 'If you have the courage, let us fight man to man.'
    The wooden door in the godown building swung open, without warning. Rabia stood in the doorway. Her mouth was taped shut and even from the distance it was clear that her hands were tied behind her back. All the ATS guns were trained on her. The voice spoke again. 'First, we are letting this innocent woman out. We got all the information that we wanted from her. We don't want to hurt her.' Rabia started walking towards the ATS men in the cemetery No one moved a muscle. As Rabia took her slow steps towards them, the ACP trained his infrared binoculars on her. Rabia was now near a broken gap in the wire fencing between the godown premises and the cemetery. Suddenly, the ACP sucked in his breath and raised his automatic pistol simultaneously. 'Bomb!' he shouted. Before anyone could react, he shot at Rabia. The bullet hit Rabia in the arm and she spun and fell backwards on to the cemented ground. Everybody dove for cover except the shocked Tanvir, who stood up and looked towards where Rabia had fallen. She lay prone on the ground in front of the wire fencing. Tanvir let out a cry of anguish and, without thinking, ran towards her. The ACP shouted a loud 'No!' from behind, but Tanvir paid him no heed. He bounded towards Rabia and reached her in no time.
    Rabia's eyes were glazed. Tanvir fell on his knees next to her, took her in his arms and hugged her. Her wound was bleeding copious amounts of blood on to the ground. Tanvir cried out, 'Please don't die. I love you. Don't leave me, please!'
    Rabia fainted. Tanvir hugged her tighter. Till he became aware that under her burqa she was strapped with bombs. The ACP shouted out to him, 'Tanvir, move away now. There must be a timer backup to blow her up.' Tanvir, instead, ripped apart Rabia's burqa and saw the mass of wires and bombs strapped on her. He looked for a way to remove the contraption. Luck was on his side, as he found that the bomb makers had found the easiest and fastest way to strap bombs without their telltale bumps showing outside the clothes—a corset. The whole contraption was sewn onto a wraparound corset, fastened only by a single Velcro strip on her right side. Tanvir tore at the Velcro strip and it started to peel off. As the last of the Velcro strip unfastened, the corset came loose. There was another attachment, a metal brace clipped onto her arm. Tanvir broke this brace with one hard twist. Without hesitation, Tanvir rose with the corset in his hands and flung it away towards the godown. He then grabbed Rabia and lifting her