The leader of the robbers was chained.
Dilip Singh's instructions were not to trust him at all.
Ali was entrusted with the task of delivering food to him both times and Ali was always worried that maybe his stomach was not full and at every meal the old chief would have to eat a couple of morsels more at Ali's insistence.
Zubair's behavior was also against his expectations.That Zubair must have come to him once or twice among them.
For the first time he tried to speak in his broken Sindhi, but he soon found that he could converse fluently in Arabic.
One day he said to Zubair,
"Living waiting for death is very patient for me".
If you don't want to have mercy on me.
I want,My punishment to be done quickly.
Zubair replied,
I fear your old age but you cannot be released from prison till then.
Until I am sure that you will become free and take up this profession.
He replied,
"My ships have been sunk and now I can do nothing but spend the remaining days of my old age hiding in a forest."
Bandits can become dangerous anywhere.
You used to rob ships at sea.If I take you to Basra, your hands will probably be cut off, and if I leave your decision to Jairam, you will have to spend the rest of your life in prison.
The leader of the robbers replied that I do not know anything about your government, but I must say that the government of Argument has no right to punish me.
That is because I have been working on my ship for the past few years. That is what the King of Sindh does while sitting on the throne.
The only difference is that his men rob weak and poor men and my companions rob only big ships instead of small boats.
Our mouth is the same but our names are different.
I am a bandit and you are a king, like him his father was also a king but my father was a bandit like me.
I myself did not become a bandit but oppression made me so.
There is no benefit in mentioning good things.
You are dominant and I am defeated.
But I definitely want you to give me whatever punishment you want instead of leaving me at the mercy of the government of Sindh.
Zaheer said,
I want to hear your story.
After a little time,the leader of the bandits narrated his story in short words.
My name is Gungo, I was born in a small village on the banks of the river Indus.
Like my father, my profession was fishing.
At the age of twenty, the shadow of my parents left my head.
There was a girl in our village.
Her name was Lajonti.
Her eyes were more charming than the eyes of a deer and her voice was sweeter than the voice of a sparrow.
People used to call her fairy.
There was no youth in the village who was not ready to die for Lajonti, but she only wanted me.
Her father was a simple-hearted man.
Once during the rainy season,the river was in full swing, so she made a bet that I would marry him,
Who would swim across the river.
There were good swimmers in our village, but seeing the flow of the river in the rainy season, no one dared to jump into the water.
But, I jumped and win the bet.
And we got married.We were both happy, and spent a lot of time in the boat.
I used to catch the shells, she used to cook.
At night, we used to sleep in the shade of the stars,laughing and singing.
"Those were strange days too"
Even Gungo got tears in his eyes and after long hiccups he started the old story.
But one day it happened that,I had to part with Lajonti.
For ever I did not know that it was a sin for a low caste and weak man to have a beautiful wife.
At a distance of one kos from our village was the town of the chief of our region.
One day he came to the river with some soldiers. And asked to take me across.
Riding on the boat, he was glaring at Lajonti. When he asked, I told him that she is my wife.
He said,
A fisherman's girl is not known.
Where did you get her?
I didn't answer.
On reaching the other side, he told me that,
I would be back by evening.
You wait for me so long.
But he came back before dusk and I took him to the other bank.
He asked my name and left.
After that he would sometimes go to our village on the pretext of watching the fishing of our village fishermen.
Lajonti told me one day that his intention is not right, he looks at me with very bad eyes. One evening Lajonti was asking for food on the boat as usual.
He came on a horse and said to me, if you have any fresh fish, bring it.
I caught two big fish a while ago.
I presented it to him.
He asked me to take the fish and go with him.
The city was not far, and I said to Lajonti.
I will come till the food is ready.
He was following his horse when a few men appeared from the cover of the bushes on the way and fell upon me.
I struggled to free myself from their grip but someone hit me on the head with a stick and I fell down.
After that, when I regained consciousness, I was lying in a dark room.
For two days I lay there in a state of hunger and thirst.
On the third day the door of the chamber was opened and three men, one carrying food and water, and two with bare swords in their hands, entered the chamber with Lajonti.
The color of Lajonti was yellow.
And looking at her eyes, it seemed that all the store of tears was gone.
Hunger and thirst were forgotten as soon as she saw it.
I wanted to run and hug him but my hands and feet were tied.
Lajonti looked at the soldier and they cut my ropes with their swords and got out.
I asked,
Eternity!
How did you get here?
And she pursed her lips and hugged herself from behind, suppressing her screams, but suddenly she widened her head in fear and went to look at the door.
She told me that shortly after my departure some men attacked the boat and captured it and brought it to the chief. She did not know my condition and preferred death to a life of dishonor.
But the chief told her about my imprisonment and threatened that if you are not willing to live a life of debauchery in his palace, your husband will be in his bed and will die of thirst rubbing his heels.
Now she came to me, to tell that Gungo you are free.
You go and understand that your eternal death.
She wanted to trade my freedom with her innocence, but I misunderstood her.
I understood that she wanted to leave the boat of a poor sailor and live in the suburbs.
I cursed her, abused her, and she put up with it all.
He just said,
Dumb!
I would prefer death to a life of dishonor, but I have come here because your life is dearer to me than my own.Think of a way out.
Her tears and sighs cleared my misunderstanding.
I hugged her again and promised her that I will come soon.
I will destroy this palace brick by brick.
The prison door opened again, instead of the soldiers, the cruel wolf entered.
If he did not have a bare sword in his hand, I would surely have attacked him.
As soon as he came he said to Lajonti,
Now tell me, what have you decided?
His life is in your hands.
Lajonti replied,
If I accept your condition, what is the proof that they will leave the city alive and well?
He said, "I promise."
Lajonti went with him in tears and four soldiers brought me out of the city.
They had new swords in their hands.
I did not believe in chief's promise.
After leaving the city, when we reached the forest that stretched far along the river, a man suddenly attacked me from behind.
I already expected this attack so,
I jumped aside to save you.
On this, the four men attacked me, but I was faster than them in running away. I soon reached the forest and hid under a bush. After looking around for a while, they went back disappointed.
It was evening, I sneaked to the river bank. My boat was burning and those four soldiers were standing on the bank of the river. These incidents turned a peaceful man like me into a mob.
I ran towards the village.My voice had an effect.
A few came out with me carrying sticks and axes and the soldiers ran away in a panic when they saw us, but we did not allow anyone to escape and killed all four and threw their bodies into the river.
At midnight,
I gathered some two hundred youths from twenty to twenty-five fishing villages.
The people of the city were tired of his cruelty before.
So no one came out to help.
A few of his soldiers fought but most of them ran away and took shelter in people's houses. We caught the chief and asked him about Lajonti.
He only replied to every question that,
I am innocent.For God's sake leave me alone. I showed him a torch and threatened to burn him alive.
Took to a room on the floor.
Seeing Lajonti's body on the floor,
I screamed.
He was saying that I did not kill her with his hands tied.
She himself jumped from the roof of the house.
You can ask the soldiers.
For God's sake have mercy on me.
I flashed a burning torch into his eyes and hacked him to pieces with successive strokes of the axe.
After that I was a bandit.
I had no mercy in my heart.
I looted several chiefs and when the King (Raja)'s forces made the land narrow for us.
I traveled to the sea through the river.
We stole two ships at night from the port of Dabil.
Since then I have returned many ships.
I consider every person as my enemy, who cooperates with the leaders and chiefs.
I see the spirit of this chief in every rich man.
I can hear the souls of oppressed girls like Lajonti crying for revenge in every upper House.
Zubair said,
I am deeply sorry for the painful death of this girl.
And perhaps you will be right in fighting the war lord, but how can you take revenge for the cruelty of one person from another person?
You attacked our ship and there was no captain on board. There were some orphaned children and women on it.
Gungo replied,
"I am sorry but the other ship was flying the flag of the King (Raja) of Sarandeep and you were its mines, but if I had known that you had women and children on board I would not have attacked.
It has been a few months since I saw a ship of your country in the sea, but I left it only because there were a few women on it besides men.
Khalid shouted and got up.
"Was there a few sailors from Sarandeep on it?"
"Yes!" replied Gungo.
"That was father's ship. And yet there is no trace of it."
You lie, you sunk their ship.
If I had sunk that ship.
So I didn't need to mention it to you.
There were also elephants on this ship.
You don't even know where he drowned.
No, I only know that the ship reached Dabil safely.
Zubair asked, there is another group of your mercenaries in this sea.
Yes !
I have already stated that land robbers are more merciless than sea ligers.
After this conversation, Zubair's interest with Gungo increased. Jairam was in a strange dilemma.
Like Zubair, Gangu's story affected him too, but like a loyal soldier, he held the King(Raja) above criticism.He was not ready to recognize the right of any subject to declare war against the King (Raja) because of a personal grudge.
He was convinced of the inferiority of the subjects compared to the sanctity of the kings.
However, when Zubair released Gungo's chains with a promise of peace, he did not resist.
After staying in Zubair's company for a few days, Gungo felt a strange change in his thoughts.
In a few meetings, Zubair mentioned the early wars of Muslims against Rome and Iran and proved to him that only Islam in the world offers such a system that can end the regimes of coercive tyranny.
Gungo had shunned all the religious beliefs of the society after adopting the life of a dacoit.
For him, the world was a vast lake, in which big fish swallowed small fish, he considered himself a small fish and was ready to fight with every big fish.
The first reason for his sympathy with the Muslims was that they were pitted against the big fish of the earth.
One day Zubair made him understand that you want to fight against oppression but your weapons are not different from the weapons of your enemy.
They burned a boat and you burn their ships. Both of them are oppressed, as many innocent people are victims of their oppressors.
Similarly, many innocent people are victims of your cruelty.You yourself have admitted that there is no difference between the two of you. Neither of you has any law for justice and peace. And until one of you has such a law, your swords will continue to clash, one sword will be blunt, then you will pick up the other, if one bow is broken, you will make another, but a man who is just and humane in the face of injustice is his rival.
They do not blunt the sword but take it away forever.
The victory of the Arabs over Iran and Rome was actually the victory of the right system over the false system. There was a victory of justice over cruelty.
The people of Iran, Egypt and Syria who were up until yesterday to wipe out the idolaters from the ranks, today we are fighting side by side to wipe out the powers of knowledge from Africa and Turkestan.
Gungo was impressed and asked, can I also support you guys?
Zubair replied with a smile, not as a bandit.
Our task is not to rob the lost caravans, but to show them the way to safety. Gungo regretfully said,
If I assure you that I repent from the life of a robber, will you believe me?
I will gladly trust you.
And you will set me free.
Zubair replied, If you make this condition for repentance, it would mean that you are not repenting because you are sorry for your actions and want to reform, but because you want to be free.
But with my repentance, you will not think that I am a coward?
No, repentance is an act of great courage. So I promise you to give up the profession of a robber.
I have faith in you and if you are ready to take responsibility for your comrades, I will set you all free, and I will take you down, Gungo replied.
What was the option?
Most of them are those who would not have dared to do such a thing without my guidance.
If you drop them off at an uninhabited place in Sindh, then they will take up the profession of fishermen.
They have been with me for a long time and no one will recognize them.
Among them, four men are themselves.
I cannot assure you about them.
I have no confidence in myself.
If you free me, it is possible that I will not be able to bear the sight of a dictator and then come down to the same cruelty. If you take me with you, it is possible that I will become a person like you by staying in your country. If the four men whom I have mentioned had been on this ship like myself, I am sure that your words would have impressed them also, if you would permit me to meet my companions.