“Sir, there is a family outside Gate No 1 and they say that
they want to meet you.”
It was the Guard supervisor calling from the Gate No 1 of the
General Headquarters of Pakistan Army.
“What family? Why they want to meet me? What for?” I asked.
“I don’t know Sir. It is a family of four, a Husband, Wife
and their two children, a boy and a girl. I told them it is not allowed to go
in but, they won’t listen and asking that you should be called.” The Guard
supervisor replied.
I said to tell them that I am not available.
The supervisor said,” I told them already. But they say that
they will not leave unless they meet you even if they have to spend the night
here. They are strange people. They are weeping. They are crying and they are
laughing and praying to ALLAH for you and your family’s health and wellbeing. I
reckon Sir; you better come and meet them”.
This was quite surprising for me.
Well, it was 11 O’clock in the
morning when this call came, and I was at my office at the General Headquarters
Rawalpindi. I was a Grade II Staff Officer at the prestigious Judge Advocate
General’s Department (JAG). Gate No 1 was quite a distance from where I was
sitting. I told the supervisor to get the person on the telephone. When he came
on the telephone, I asked as to what the issue is and why he is so anxious to
meet me. He introduced himself as Naik Ahmed of X infantry Battalion of Baloch
Regiment. He gave a quick brief of himself.
It was then that it struck me and all
was recalled to my memory. Let me start from the beginning and give the
details.
I was serving in the JAG Head Office
at the General Headquarters of Pakistan Army at Rawalpindi. As a routine, a
case file was forwarded to me by my head of the department. I was at that time
part of the pre-trial department where the discipline cases of the entire Army
are analyzed and on this department’s recommendations, the fates are decided.
This case file was of a soldier of Baloch Regiment, who was declared as “Black”
by the intelligence. It had a very strange case history. The soldier was
recommended for the Military Court Martial on charges of treason. The soldier
belonged to a village situated in Kashmir. My head of the department has sent
it to me with the remarks “May I have your views”. Normally, if a case was
processed and finalized and placed before the Head of the department for his
signatures and he has some iota of doubt, he used to send it to me for review
with the remarks as I mentioned above.
As a habit, I used to go into details
of the cases as I knew that we were actually playing with the lives of the
people and each and every word counts. Normally, on receiving a case with such
remarks, I used to become extra careful. I was allowed to keep all the earlier
received cases pending and accord priority handling to the case having the
above mentioned remarks.
It was a
real complicated case. With quite difficulty, I was able to unearth the truth
behind it.
The story goes like this; that a
Soldier Ahmad was serving in the Baloch Regiment. He was much disciplined,
hardworking and was liked by all. He went on a few days vacations to his home
at the village where he had a mother and a wife. He also had some agriculture
land which was well situated and was quite fertile. It was only a week or ten
days after he had joined back from leave that the Military Police came with
some Intelligence people and took him under custody. It was told to the unit
that he has been declared as ‘Black’ by the Intelligence.
Normally, there are three Categories namely
White, Gray and Black in the intelligence language. 'White' are those who are
patriot and there is no doubt about their loyalties towards the country. 'Gray'
is the one who have a dubious character and their loyalties are doubtful.
Whereas, 'Black' are those people who are confirmed anti country and there is
no doubt about their disloyalty towards the country.
Nothing was heard for almost two
years after the arrest of the soldier. His Commanding Officer wrote letter to
the authorities and tried to convince them that the soldier is not of the type
and was very loyal, his reputation was excellent and his case be reviewed but,
to no veil. The soldiers’ family also tried to locate him but his whereabouts
could not be traced. The Commanding Officer of the Soldier was very consistent
and he kept his efforts. Finally, after two years of the consistence efforts,
the soldier was released after been declared ‘White’. He again started serving
in the Unit with devotion and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, the unit was marked for UN
mission abroad and went on deputation to Saudi Arabia. The soldier also
accompanied as part of the unit. With the passage of time the soldier has
passed his exams and was promoted as Naik (Corporal). Like others, he also
became quite well off as during deputation the salaries are paid in US dollars.
When the unit returned from
deputation, with their utter surprise, the soldier, who has now a Naik, was
arrested right at the airport. The charges were the same and he was declared
‘Black’. This time, his whereabouts were not known till next five years until
his file came before me for preparing his charge sheet, for Field General Court
Martial, on Treason charges. Yes, this was Naik Ahmad and this is his true
story.
I went into details of the case and called
for all the papers about the history of the case. In those papers I also
discovered the letter of his present Commanding Officer reposing his full
confidence on Naik Ahmad and his loyalty.
I used my good offices and carried out
discrete inquiry. His commanding officer was also contacted. Here is what was
unearthed.
Naik Ahmad was a very poise and
gentleman. He was the only son of his parents. His father died when Ahmad’s
first child was born. Naik Ahmad was the bread earner of his family. He had a
mother to look after. He also had a small piece of agriculture land which, he
had given on it on Patta (contract) and was getting good income from it. He had
a maternal uncle, a Havildar (Sergeant) in the Army, who was serving in an
intelligence battalion. His name was Afzal. Naik Ahmad’s land was adjacent to
his Uncle Havildar Afzal’s land and Havildar Afzal was interested that Naik
Ahmad should give his land to his uncle and for that he was ready to pay a
token price, which was of course quite less than the market value of the land.
Even otherwise, Naik Ahmad was not interested in selling his land as, he had
little needs and he was happy. Havildar Afzal tried to pressurize Naik Ahmad
but failed. So he threatened him of the dire consequences. They had a hot talk
over it when Naik Ahmad was on leave in his village and incidentally at that
moment of time his uncle Havildar Afzal was also there. When Naik Ahmad came
back from leave Havildar Afzal maneuvered, used his intelligence sources and
Naik Ahmad was arrested, declared ‘Black’ and his land was confiscated. After
two years of consistent efforts of NK Ahmad’s Commanding Officer, NK Ahmad was
released, his land was restored and he went on deputation, all to the dislikes
of Havildar Afzal.
When Naik Ahmad was serving abroad
for three years, Havildar Afzal was promoted and became Naib Subedar. Now he
had more powers. He used those and again managed to declare Naik Ahmad as
‘Black’ and put him behind bars. In these five years, when Naik Ahmad was under
confinement and his whereabouts were not known, his mother died, as there was
nobody to look after the family and to take care of their basic needs let alone
the doctor’s expenditures. There were no resources for bread and butter what to
talk of mother’s medicines/medical care. The agriculture land, which was a
source of income to the family, was forcefully occupied by Subedar Afzal, as
the link which was the source of stopping Subedar Afzal, his sister and Naik
Ahmad’s mother was dead. The conditions became so bad that the wife of Naik
Ahmad had to resort to prostitution to earn the livelihood of her children.
This was quite pathetic and sad.
On revelation of the truth, Subedar
Afzal was removed from duty, arrested and court martialed.
Naik Ahmad was honorably released and
family was united. But, nobody could retrieve his mother, who died of this
shock. Nobody could bring back the lost years of Naik Ahmad, which he could
have spent with his mother, wife and children with joy.
This has never ever happened, as far
as I know, in the history that a person was declared ‘Black’ and then declared
‘White’ and again declared ‘Black’ and then again declared ‘White’. Normally
once a person is declared ‘Black’, he/she has to remain behind bars and usually
die there. They are never released and would never see the Sun again. Their
families keep wondering as to where have they gone.
This was that Naik Ahmad, who had
come to the gate of General Headquarters to thank me personally with his
family, after hearing from, ALLAH knows where, that I was instrumental in his
honorable release and bringing Subedar Afzal to justice.
One cannot imagine what I felt and
saw there that day. Ahmad, his wife and two children were crying/ weeping with
joy, graciousness, thankfulness and Allah knows what. Nonstop tears were
flowing from their eyes. I also cried with tears in my eyes. The entire family
was trying to embrace, kiss and touch me as if I was, Naozobillah (ALLAH
forbid), God.
