The Jugni Read online

  They entered a medium-sized room with no windows. The walls of the room had different kinds of maps of the city. A mid-sized table in the center of the room had a couple of video monitors and a satellite phone. All the men sat on the chairs around that table. One man started a video call on one of the monitors. A fat man with a long beard and no mustache appeared on the screen. All greeted him.

  “You made it boys! How was your journey?”

  “It was a long journey, we had to go to Bangladesh first then we entered India. Now we are here.” One of the two boys replied.

  “That’s all right. I hope the tiredness of the journey did not dampen your spirits.”

  “Not at all, Sir. We are as focused now as we were. We don’t even need time to rest. We can start working straight away.” The second boy replied.

  “That’s the spirit, my boys.” Then that man asked the old man, “How are your preparations, uncle?”

  “We are ready and the boys are fully motivated. We have got a plan and all the weapons we need. I just need to discuss the duties.” The old man replied.

  “Very well, I am pleased with you guys. It is time to get our brother out of that bloody jail. He is in there long enough. He is the main leader of our mission. We need him in our next endeavor.”

  “We will give our lives to get him out.” A man from the group spoke.

  “Make sure one man kills at least a hundred before you die. The boys I sent you are my best. They are killing machines. I am sure they will boost up your mission.”

  “Yes, for sure, Sir. Soon this city will have a big shock and our beloved brother will be out of that shit hole.” The old man said.

  “I am proud of you all. May God bless you and you have success in the mission.” The man on the screen hung up the call after that.

  “So, uncle, what is the plan?”

  “Everybody come here.” He pointed at the wall having a big map of the city. They all walked to the wall. The old man began to reveal his plan. Everyone heard him with all the concentration they had.

  Meanwhile…

  On the other side, Mr. Sinha was busy with the preparations for the wedding of his daughter. Most people from the department including Simar were invited.

  The wedding day had arrived.

  “I hate to do makeup, but it’s my first party in Delhi. I wish I could call in sick for this. If I do, Sinha Sir will feel bad about it. Think about nice food, Simar and so many varieties of it. Oh God, I have to add an extra hour in my work out for a month if I go crazy with food. Don’t think about calories for one day Simar. You eat healthy rest of the year anyway.” Simar was speaking to herself as she gave the finishing touch to her makeup.

  She wore a royal blue Punjabi suit with shirt and dupatta having a golden floral pattern. The matching golden shoes with pencil heels increased her height even further by a few inches. She had a look in the mirror, she looked stunning. She put an envelope in her small golden purse and headed to her jeep.

  She sat on the seat of her jeep, put the key in and twisted. The jeep did not start. She tried four to five times, but no luck.

  She took her phone out of the purse and dialed a number.

  “Hi, can I speak to Raju mechanic please.”

  “Yes speaking, how can I help you?”

  “Bhaiya, Simar here… You fixed my black jeep the other day. It is playing up again. I have to go to a party and it does not want to start.”

  “Sorry madam, I will send a boy to fix it up. But it will take a couple of hours.”

  “No, I don’t have that much time. Will get it fixed tomorrow. I am sick of this. If you know someone who is looking for a jeep, I am happy to sell it.”

  “No problem, madam, I will keep that in mind and send someone to fix it first thing in the morning.”

  “Thanks, okay Bye.”

  As soon as she hung up, her phone rang.

  “Hi, Sharma sir, how are you?”

  “I am good, thanks. The reason for my call was, my wife wants to know whether you are going to the wedding or not. She does not know any ladies among the guests and was concerned that I will hang out with department boys and she will feel alone there. I told her about you if you don’t mind the company of an old lady.”

  “That is a great idea, Sir. I don’t know many people in the city anyways. I would love her company.”

  “That’s good. So, when are you leaving for the venue?”

  “I was ready to go but my jeep did not start. It is playing up again.”

  “Oh, I see, how will you go to the wedding then?”

  “I don’t know, maybe I will call a taxi.”

  “Can I suggest you something? Catch a metro from the station which is right next to your house, if you don’t mind using public transport. After two stations, just hop off. My wife and I will be waiting for you outside the station, you can go with us. I would pick you up but because of a religious march, the roads from my place to yours are blocked.”

  “Thanks, Sharma sir, for your offer. I don’t mind using public transport. I guess this is the best option I have got. I will catch the next metro and will see you soon.”

  “No problem, Simar, see you soon.”

  She walked to the Model Town metro station, bought the ticket and got into the metro. With her earphones in, she rang her mother.

  “Hi Mom, how are you?”

  “I am good, my dear. What about you?”

  “I am alright. I was going to the wedding of Mr. Sinha’s daughter and that bloody jeep did not start. I am going to sell this one and buy a new one.”

  “Yes, if you are not happy with that no point of keeping it. Anyways, I sent you the photos of the girl, did you see?”

  “Yes, mom. That is why I called. I did not call to complain about my vehicle.”

  “She is pretty. What does she do?”

  “She is a dentist in Chandigarh.” During their conversation, the metro started.

  “That’s cool. What did Jaspal veerji say? Is he happy?”

  “I guess so. He did not say anything, but he blushed when he saw the photo.” Both ladies laughed. “Just get some leave from work and come over, we will finalize everything.”

  “Yes, mom. I will sort something out. Okay, I will ring you some other time.”

  “Okay, take care, my girl.”

  After the conversation, Simar did not pull her earphones out. She played her playlist of Punjabi songs and enjoyed the view from the window.

  The next station was Kashmere gate. The train stopped, some passengers got in and some got out. The incoming passenger had those men from the terrorist group as well. One terrorist got into each compartment of the train. The others from the group stayed at the station. All the men dressed normally and did not draw anybody’s attention. A few had backpacks on them. They all had Bluetooth earphones in their ears.

  The men, who did not catch the train, headed towards the control room of the metro. The man in the first, front carriage said to the others via earphones, “We are in position.” The train started.

  The man standing near the control room said, “So are we.”

  “Okay, it’s time to get the bird out of the cage, God bless you, my brothers. Let’s do it”

  The man near the control room looked at two of his men standing at some distance and nodded slightly. Those two men took their guns out and started firing in the air. People started running here and there. The security guard ran towards the direction of firing. One terrorist shot him with his machine gun. This created panic in public even more. The two terrorists chased the crowd out of that place. The rest of the 7-8 men stormed the control room. They did not kill anyone but did a lot of firing in the air.

  “Everyone, sit on the ground, now!” The man in charge said at the top of his voice.

  “If anyone does any movement, it w
ill be the last movement your body will ever do.”

  Then he looked around. There were so many monitors displaying different metros and stations. He went to one boy with big curly hair and thick spectacles.

  “What is your position here?”

  “I am… I am…” The fear interfered with his sentence formation.

  “If you cannot speak clearly I will have to shoot you.”

  “No, I will speak clearly. I am a junior engineer here.”

  “That’s good, now do as I say. Stop the recording of the security cameras in the whole premises.”

  “Do you want to shut them down?”

  “No, I need to see outside as well. I don’t want them to record anything. Now get up and do it, I shouldn’t have to repeat myself.”

  That poor geek did as he was told. Rest of the staff sat on the floor, scared. Men with guns surrounded them. The boy saw in a CCTV camera that his two men had got rid of the crowd, but some policemen had gathered at the entrance and they were getting ready to walk in.

  He said to his men, “Two of you, go and help your brothers outside. You mister engineer, where is the microphone for the announcement system?”

  The geek pointed towards a table opposite to him. The leader walked to it and held the microphone in his hand and signaled that boy to activate that.

  “Dear policemen, please don’t make the mistake of coming in. The control room and all its staff are in our custody. We will kill the same number of hostages, as many policemen enter the premises. We have our eyes everywhere in the building”

  Those couple of policemen, who were trying to get in, heard his announcement over the speakers. They postponed their decision of entering the building.

  One of them went back to the check post and informed his seniors.

  At the same time, in the train, on the order of the captain, all of them pulled their guns out simultaneously. To draw the attention of the passengers, one terrorist in each section did firing in the air. People started screaming with fear. Similar dialogs were screamed in each compartment by the terrorist in charge there; to sit quietly and whoever will try to do something, will be killed.

  Simar did not notice anything as she was looking outside and listening to her music. The gunshots drew her attention, she pulled the earphones out. Everybody was shocked what was going on but they all followed what the terrorist said. One old man sitting beside Simar asked the terrorist, “Son, why are you doing this?”

  He pointed the gun towards that man and said, “If any more words come out of anybody’s mouth I will shoot that person! We are doing all this for our leader. He is in jail. If your government loves you and don’t want you to be killed they will release him. But if not, we will kill all of you.”

  “Oh, I see. This is a hijack for the return of a terrorist leader,” Simar spoke to herself in her head.

  “This is not good. I can’t let this to happen. But what should I do? Think Simar, think.”

  “There must be more of them. They might have hijacked the whole train and not only this carriage. How much ammunition are they carrying? How many are they in total?” Her brain was working extra actively.

  The train did not stop at its next station. The news of hostages in the control room and metro being hijacked got out. This incident drew the attention of all the news channels in the city and the rest of the country.

  Mr. Sinha had to rush to the headquarters leaving the wedding ceremony before it even started. The whole country stood still with the news. People glued to the TVs for updates. All the police officers and allied forces were alerted. A lot of police force gathered outside the control room station. Sinha ranged Mr. Sharma to come to the headquarters. He gave the charge of the hostage situation in the control room to Zahid.

  Zahid reached there in no time, put a bulletproof vest on and took a position.

  He rang Mr. Sinha in the headquarters.

  “Sir, I am here. What are the orders? Should we attack?”

  “No, they are watching through cameras. Commandos are on their way, let them deal it; they will get dropped from a helicopter. There are no cameras on the roof, terrorists won’t see them coming.”

  “So, what do you want me to do, Sir?”

  “Try to talk to them, if they communicate, ask their demands. I guess there must be something big for such a drama.”

  “Okay, Sir, I am on to it.”

  Zahid walked to the entrance gate with his hands up. He did not carry any gun in the hand and walked slowly so that they could see him in cameras. The man guarding the door shouted, “Stop right there, otherwise I will kill you and you will get someone killed in the control room as well.”

  “I came to talk. Can I speak to your leader?”

  “He will talk when he wants, not when you want. Turn around or I am going to shoot.”

  Zahid walked back. He was thinking of a method to talk to the leader and to know their motive. When he was walking back, he saw a stationary shop across the road. The police had sealed the area and all shops were closed. Zahid walked to the door of the stationery shop. He punched the glass door a couple of times. Some part of it shattered into pieces. He slid his arm in and opened the lock from the inside. He went in and took a big white paper and a black marker pen.

  He put that paper on the bonnet of a car and scribbled something on it with a marker pen. Then he walked in front of the CCTV camera on the gate and showed that paper in his hands. The paper had a written word ‘Demands’ in big letters and had a big question mark. Zahid stood there for long to make sure that terrorists see it. The geek in the control room drew the attention of the terrorist leader towards the screen displaying Zahid.

  “Well, what we got here?” The leader mumbled. He saw the screen and went to the microphone.

  “Hello officer, I am the in charge of this whole scenario. I guess you want to know what we want.” Zahid heard that from the announcement speakers.

  He nodded and showed thumbs up to the camera.

  “Okay then, listen, we want your government to release our brother Zakir Shah from jail, ten million US dollars, two helicopters and an assurance of a safe escape. If we get anything less from the list I just told, all the passengers in the metro and here in the control room will die. You guys have two hours to arrange everything. In the meantime, we will keep that metro running and we need our way clear, no other metro should be running.”

  Zahid wrote the word ‘ok’ on the paper and showed to the camera and walked back.

  Sinha saw this on the big screen in a big hall of headquarters which showed live telecast from the camera mounted on one of the police vehicles.

  “I want all the details of the passengers. Check in the recordings of cameras of all the stations that all other metros are stopped.” Sinha said to his technicians working on the computer in the same hall. He had many police officers present there as well. He turned to them and said, “How come they could carry weapons in the metro? They must have bypassed the security system with some internal help. Find out who helped them?”

  The phone rang, and he answered via the speakerphone.

  “Sir, did you hear that?”

  “Yes, Zahid. I am going to speak to the home minister regarding that.”

  “Sir, are we going to release Zakir Shah? So many officers lost their lives in that mission in which he was caught.”

  “I know Zahid; I don’t want that rascal to be out as well, but at present, there are so many lives at stake. We need to find a way out. Anyways, I can’t take such decisions on my own, need to discuss this with the chief minister and other leaders.”

  Before Zahid could reply anything, Mr. Sharma opened the door of that room making a lot of noise as he came running in and transferred all his momentum on the door.

  Everyone including Sinha looked at him once, for a fraction of a second. He still wore the
shiny party-wear kurta-pajama. Seeing it was Mr. Sharma, everyone continued their work and Sinha continued to look at the screens in front of him.

  “Sir, Sir.” Mr. Sharma shouted as soon he entered that room. Sinha waved him to come in and turned his head again.

  “Sir, Simar is in that metro.” He said with the same pitch but loudly.

  Now he had the attention of everyone. Everyone present in that hall paused and looked at Sharma.

  “How do you know Mr. Sharma?”

  “Sir, she was supposed to come to your place for the wedding but her jeep did not start. I asked her to catch the metro and hop off at a station near to our place. From there I was supposed to pick her up and come to the wedding together.”

  “Sir, did I hear, right? Mr. Sharma said Simar is in that metro?” Zahid asked which everyone heard.

  “Yes Zahid, it is my mistake. I asked her to catch the metro.” Sharma replied before Sinha could say anything.

  Sinha and everyone in the hall got worried. Sinha gathered his emotions and thoughts and started talking to Zahid again. “Did media get to know those demands?”

  “No Sir, we are not allowing media to go near the site. They will show a live telecast of everything and the terrorists will know our moves.”

  “That’s good, but tell them why you are doing that, hopefully, they will understand. Speak to you later Zahid, keep me updated.”

  “Yes, sure sir.”

  Sinha walked to Mr. Sharma who sat on one chair with his hand on the head. Sinha placed his hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

  “Sir, if something happens to that girl, I will be responsible for that. What explanation I will give to her family.”

  “Mr. Sharma, don’t lose heart this early. She is a brave girl. Please take some time to get yourself together. We need to deal with this situation and I need you by my side.”

  “Yes Sir, I am with you. Just let me pray for that young lady. I don’t know what is going on in that metro.”

  In the metro, seven carriages out of eight had two armed men in each and the first one had four including their leader. Those passengers, who did not have a seat before, were forced to sit on the floor. The terrorists had taken their guns and blades out of the backpacks and had tucked in their belts and other parts of clothing.