The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

Author:Jamil Ahmad
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Azizex666
ISBN: 9781594486166
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Published: 2012-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

On approaching the hills, the band of men rested for a while near the spring. They baked bread and shared it with their captives, and also arranged for a few mules to carry the footsore teachers the rest of the way. Their destination was the house of an old man, Mandos, who was going to care for the captives and negotiate their ransom in return for a share of the proceeds. They reached the house after dark and found the old man finishing his midnight prayers. A room had been prepared for the captives. Since such a large number had not been expected, quilts had to be shared, two men to one quilt.

When the morning came, one of the schoolteachers was asked to write a letter addressed to his relatives, indicating their fair state of health and the name of their host, and including, most important of all, fervent pleas for meeting the terms of their kidnappers and securing their early release. They were then served a breakfast of fried chicken, wheat cakes, and tea. From now on until their release, the hostages would be looked after with greater care and diligence than a tribesman can spare for his own sons.

On the second day after the kidnapping, the deputy commissioner received the information that the party had crossed into Waziristan and was heading toward Mandos’s safe house in the notorious Shaktu Valley, which had provided sanctuary for half a century to most of the outlaws in the area. The fact that Mandos’s name had come to the forefront so early established quite clearly that this old man would do the yagh—make the proclamation about the terms for release of the captives from his custody.

The large, mountainous territory of Waziristan was split into two administrative units, each with a political agent in charge. The two political agents were informed of the news, because from now on the game would have to be played by them and their people. Regular laws did not apply here, and the Frontier Crimes Regulations were the primary instrument of administration with which they had to try to balance the needs and customs of the tribes with the commands that reached them from the government.

The political agent of North Waziristan was headquartered in a fort at Miranshah. The political agent of South Waziristan, who dealt mainly with the Mahsuds, had his base in a small cantonment at a place called Wana. These bases had not changed much in the past fifty years. Most of the men lived without their families, bugles were still blown in the morning, and the retreat formally sounded in the evening. The pickets and outposts retained their old British names—Guides Hill, Gordon Hill, Gibraltar Picket—as did the roads in the cantonment and the gates of Miranshah Fort.

One of the few recent changes was that the two political agents could now communicate with each other by wireless. And it was over wireless that they agreed on the arrangements for handling the problem. As the

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