Protection With Terror?
Narrating a true story shared by someone I know:
I was thrown out of my sleep with the crazy door bell followed by some heavy knocking on my house door at 05:20 in the morning. My head was spinning and wasn’t able to understand if I am dreaming or I’m back to the real world.
While knocking out things here and there, I got out of my bed and reached for the main door intercom so I can know who the hell is at my door at 5 in the morning. The door bell was ringing continuously and the boots on the door were getting louder and louder.
I picked up the intercom and shouted in pure anger “Who the Hell is that?” My voice was followed by a much angry voice saying “It’s Rangers! Open the door immediately”.
The anger in that voice got my eyes opened and I rushed to open the door. My wife and my kid (9yr old boy) were waking up from the voices I was making while unlocking my house for the Law Enforcement guys “Rangers”.
As soon as I opened the main door, 7-8 (don’t remember the exact count) rushed into my house with their G3 riffles facing me and asking me to move into the house. I went inside the house to see my wife was already up and out of the bed and my son came running to me crying in fear after seeing these tall and huge guys. Immediately, I was asked to unlock everything in my house for a search. I was not told “Why” and by “What” authority they wanted me to obey them, as in a civilized world, a search warrant is required to search any public property. I obeyed them and opened up every closed/locked drawers, cupboards and boxes. When I turned around, I found my mattress lying on the floor and 2 guys looking beneath my bed. A few went into my cupboards and dropped off every piece of cloth/stuff in there on the floor. I was still in shock as they were not asking anything and kept on doing their so called work. One of these guys was not wearing a uniform; instead, he was in Shalwar Kameez and was covering his face with a big shawl. He kept on staring my face with an unknown hate in his eyes.
After everything in my bedroom was on the floor, One of them (seemed their leader) spoke to me and asked me to move to another room, my son’s room. I lead them to my son’s room and same procedure was repeated with a little difference, they were talking to me now. The one who was talking to me threw a question and I answered immediately. He asked “Where did you live in F.B Area”. I replied with the Block I used to live in. Then he asked “What you do for a living?” I told them that I owned a small business related to marketing services and offered them my business card, which they refuse by saying “It’s not required”. Finally, they asked me the question I was waiting for. I heard him saying in his heavy voice “Do you have any weapons, licensed or un-licensed?” I told him “I don’t have any weapons, licensed or un-licensed”.
After staying 5-8 minutes more in my houses and searching every bit of it, they finally decided to leave with an instruction “Don’t come out side”.
I escorted them to the gate and shut it close as they left. Coming back in my room, I found my son crying and shivering with fear. I looked at the clock, it was 5:34 in the morning and I could hear the Fajar prayers being called from the nearby mosque. I hugged my son and talked with him. I told him that “These guys are to protect us and we shouldn't be afraid of them”. He was listening very carefully to me and was getting normal with every word from my mouth. I could feel his shivering coming to an end. But my mind kept on searching for an answer which my 9 year old son asked me “Papa, if they were to protect us, why were we terrorized?”
It’s been a week and I’m still searching for that very answer.