Page 63 - Love Story of a Commando

when suddenly some photographs slipped out of the envelope, scattering all
over the floor. As I bent to pick them up, a shriek escaped my mouth. It was
a brutal sight.
Pictures of dead, massacred kids were scattered all over the floor!
A few dead bodies were mutilated. There were pictures of people
carrying the dead bodies of those little kids, mothers crying. Some pictures
were taken from the blast sites with the backdrop of ice-covered mountain
peaks, where there were more dead bodies, children with no arms or legs on
blood-soaked crimson-red ground, contrasting with the rest of the white
snow-covered ground.
My stomach churned and my mind swirled. I clutched my mouth and
rushed to the washroom. I had to throw up.
Raghav hastily put the photographs back into the envelope, taped it
and entered the bathroom where I was trying to compose myself.
He held me by my shoulders, pushed me towards the wall and said,
‘Riya, have some control! What did Mr Durrani tell you when he gave you
this envelope?’
‘Noth…nothing!’ I was shivering.
‘Riya, gather your courage. It is nothing,’ he shook me violently.
Something hit me hard.
‘Nothing? You said nothing? Are you blind, those were little kids!
Hundreds of them dead! I saw the pictures. Okay? Brutally killed, lying
there on the blood-soaked soil and you say nothing?’ I growled back.
‘I deal with these pictures daily. It does not haunt me anymore.
Okay? So stop throwing a tantrum and behave like someone sensible with
whom I can talk,’ he hissed.
I was scared, distraught and shaken. I said meekly, ‘Yes! Tell me, I
am listening.’
‘Riya, I don’t know why he chose to deliver these photographs
through you. He said he had some more data to be scanned and uploaded
into the system but his source had not delivered it to him,’ he said.
‘Data?’ I was curious.
‘Yes, data! Information regarding Kashmiri kids through pictures or
stats are our data which we enter into the system through top secure lines to
maintain a record of the human rights violations and terrorist attacks in the
valley. This is top information which is relayed directly to the home ministry
and it is maintained as Top Secret and never revealed to the public,’ he was
whispering.
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘I think it’s because the Indian government doesn’t want to elevate
the Kashmir tensions or spread hatred across the country. Maybe the
government wants to safeguard these people and help them freely in their