(Image via www.indiatvnews.com)
Venue: A non-descript house in a residential locality of Burdwan town, 100 km from Kolkata
The room looks cluttered. One side of the room is stacked with rows and rows of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), while the other side is littered with RDX, wires and various spare parts. The walls are covered with posters and graffiti with anti-India and pro-Pakistan messages. A small TV set in a corner of the room plays a compilation of images depicting Muslim persecution in different parts of the world to the beats of death metal music. Two men, Shakil Ahmed and Swapan Mondal, are hunched over an IED device in the middle of the room.
“Where are these IEDs going?” asked Shakil, as he tinkered with the wires.
“I think Gandhi maidan, where they’ll hold the dussehra celebrations in a couple of days,” replied Swapan.
“Oh,” said Shakil.
The two worked in silence for a few moments.
“You know how many are expected to be at the maidan?” asked Swapan.
“How many?”
“Twenty thousand people…”
Shakil looked up. “Twenty thousand people..” he echoed in a hoarse whisper.
“Say that again,” Swapan whispered back, smiling.
“Twenty thousand people!” responded Shakil, louder.
“Say that again!”
“TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE!” screamed Shakil with a wild grin on his face.
“SAY THAT AGAIN!” Swapan hollered back.
The two then held each other’s hands and jumped and squealed like little girls.
After a few seconds, when they had calmed down, Shakil picked up the IED device and said, “All right, back to work.”
“How long until you are done with that?” Swapan nodded towards the device.
“Well, I’m almost done,” said Shakil, squinting at a wire. “I just need to tighten up the connections.”
Suddenly, Swapan’s face turned deathly white, and his eyes grew wide as saucers.
“What the hell is that?” he exclaimed, pointing at a wire.
Shakil looked bewildered. “Huh? A wire, what else?”
“WHAT wire!?”
“Um, I didn’t follow…”
“WHAT COLOUR WIRE?”
“Red, I suppose…”
“ARE YOU NUTS?” screamed Swapan. “YOU PUT IN A RED WIRE IN DIDI LAND??? AND THAT TOO IN A TMC LEADER’S HOUSE? DO YOU WANT TO GET US KILLED?”
Shakil stared back, dumbfounded and aghast in equal measure.
“Take it out…” Swapan lunged towards Shakil, and grabbed the red wire.
“Wait.. WAIT!”
Ignoring Shakil, Swapan yanked the red wire out of the device, and the two disappeared in a haze of fire and dust.