Chapter 14
At the Maoists camp beyond Bolaram cantonment, state chief Sathya Narayana was reading through neatly compiled reports from various units of the state. Report of transfer of arrested Maoists cadres from Warangal to Hyderabad was upsetting. He was planning a separate operation to take Samaraveera from warangal jail. At Warangal he had more local support including some sympathisers in the police. now he will have to find out where his people were being held .If Ravi and Samaraweera are in the same complex, it would make matters easy. He had to take Ravi out of jail. Sathya knew that Ravi was one of those dyed in the wool believer Carl Marx, Mao and Indian leaders like Muzumdar. The top leadership thought highly about his knowledge. He should not be rotting in some remote jail.
He saw the report from Hyderabad about arrival of cadres from Warangal to be lodged in newly constructed jail complex attached to police commissioners office. This was more a transit arrangement before pushing them into some central jail complex. There was also a report about installation of remote operated gate for the PC office complex. It was designed to lock up the entire complex in the event of un authorised entry or attack..Sathya smiled.He had experts who could work around any electronic control systems.
He had finalised his plans to attack the PC office and spring Ravi out. Now that Samaraweera was also there, He could accomplish two tasks at the same.
He started moving his men to their positions. arms and ammunition were carried INTO THE CITY by ladies in their big vegetable baskets. Country bombs and detonators were in place and demolition experts were standing by for instruction. The plan was to attack the police station from the front. At the same at the rear side where prison cells were located, bomb squad were to blast the rear wall and gain access to the cells, breaking the locks of the cell doors were only physical work to be done. Early morning time was taken because most guards would be fast asleep and reaction time to recover from shock would be long. ADDED TO THAT THERE WOULD BE SURPRISE ELEMENT TO THEIR ADVANTAGE. Messages were sent to Ravi and Samaraweera in advance so that they would be awake and be ready to move fast out of the cells after jail break.
Dickey always said that Indian police men were notorious for their inefficiency and rustic manner of responding to a crisis. They would come up most extra ordinary ways to put obstacles in the way of jail breakers , like driving a bullock cart in the path of speeding vehicle. Sathya was very much aware of this. He had factored all this in his plans. He was sure that jail break by itself could be easy but get away from the city may present some problem. He had a few options and back up plans.
The diversion plans to cover their escape routes involved exploding bombs in places like Ravindra bharati, Nizam hospital and in koti areas so that police will be drawn away from their escape route. He planned to reach sanatnagar and then get on to balanagar to catch north bound road. The other route was to take begumpeth flyover and hit rashtrapathy road leading north. But that was directly in line with militaryway
Once the plan was firmed up in his mind, he called for a meeting to brief his men. He distributed the arms and instructions as required. He wanted to lead the attack himself but there was a protocol to be followed as desired by high command. State unit chief should not participate in attack on jails. Another operation at the army academy was ahead , for which he would be required.so he called a senior comrade called Ramulu to lead the attack.
Ravi got the message through one of the tea boys. He was happy that Sathya was making a move to get him out of the police cell. At the same time, he was not happy that the other Sri Lankan also would be rescued. Ravi hated being put in the same bracket as the Sri Lankan. Ravi knew that samaraweera was planted by Srilankan Navy to spy for china. Samaraweera did not believe in any ideology. Ravi was basically a tamil at heart and he used his language skills to take up srilankan identity to escape harassment by Sri Lankan army.His father died fighting for LTTE and after the war life for a tamil was a horror.He opted to go to India as a Chinese agent because he believed in that ideology and felt India was ripe for a changeHe believed LTTE lost the war because India let them down at a crucial stage of war and he wanted to do something by way of revenge and changing the form of government was one good honest way of achieving it. But Samaraweera was different. He was against Indian people especially tamils. That made him a villain in Ravi’s mindset. You can be against a government but not against the people.
He thought about his situation in indian jail. He had trained himself to be a great warrior. He wanted to pit his skills with that of Dickey.With out any action, he found himself in jail because fate willed differently. His jeep was confiscated. He had injured himself, broken rib and fractured hand. He maintained absolute silence during the interrogation, not giving any information. police had treated him nicely. because of his injuries, there was no attempt to beat him up physically. he was grateful for that. He was also happy when he came to know that the Oldman who had brought about his capture had not been hit by his jeep..
During his stay in the jail, he had heard name of Major Dickey several times. There was even talk about dickey coming up for questioning him. But Dickey had not shown up.It would have been nice to meet him. He had heard several stories about exploits of Major Dickey and his cousin Col Prabhu in Srilanka in the back streets of Jaffna.. That was before IPKF turned against LTTE. After the war, Dickey’s family did lot of relief work to help the affected families from the war torn nation. P.Shankar Iyer’s chain of schools helped many children to sudy and war veterans to gain employment as teachers and instructors. So Ravi subconsciously had cultivated a hero worship attitude towards Dickey.
They attacked at 3;30A.M when the whole lot of guards and security staff had gone to sleep. They came in two wans each carrying six men .A third van moved to the rear of the complex to drill the rear wall.They drilled holes and planted pencil bombs in the holes and detonated the bombs to make a man sized hole in the wall. The high speed drills with diamond impregnation points were surprisingly silent.
The group in front dealt with remote control lock and opened main gates letting them into the complex Ramulu cursed the Indian mentality of putting so many doors. Silently they moved inside with out encountering any resistance.
The lock experts tackled the cell locks and withdrawing bolts made terrible noise . The guards woke up and saw strange hooded men moving and raised alarm and all hell broke loose.
Ravi had to be helped to move where as samaraweera was only too happy to run. He was grabbed by one of his friends and taken to the van at the back. They were supposed to take a different routes to the north road
Police realised they were under attack. There was confusion initially but soon training effect took over and some policemen moved to the armoury gun rack to grab a rifle each. The shooting began and a couple of intruders dropped dead. They saw two vans from front of the building start . police started firing at the van. Ravi had difficulty getting into the van. A passing bullet found its home in his thigh. He was roughly pulled inside and he collapsed on the floor of van. It was still dark, he felt for the wound and his hand was wet with blood. He knew he had to go to a doctor. He felt the bullet embedded in his thigh. He badly needed services of a surgeon to extract the bullet. If it is not done immediately ,he may lose his leg also. The prospect scared him silly and he shouted at his friend ,’we need to go to a doctor. I have been hit in the thigh. I am bleeding. we need to stop at some hospital.
His friend was confused. ’we can’t waste time. we have to leave the city before sunrise;Ravi screamed at him,’YOU TAKE M E TO A GOOD HOSPITAL AND LEAVE.’
The man was irritated and reluctantly agreed to stop at the first hospital
The second van carryingsamaraveera raced towards the Jubilee bus stand.An early morning bus was scheduled to leave for Warangal at 5.00A,M.Three seats were reserved in the first bus to leave for Warangal.
The van stopped at the roadside entrance to the big bus terminal.Three people got down walked inside.They found a tea stall and ordered a cup of tea each.Then they walked to platform number12 where a gleaming new bus parked and passengers were entering one by one.Samaraweera and his two colleagues got in and found their seats at the rear of bus and promptly dozed off to sleep.
The cell phone at the bedside table of police commissioner’s residence screamed unceremoniously.Mouli was jerked out ofdeep sleep by the persistent ringing.The cel phone was connected to a charger.A sleepy hand groped for the cell and separated the charger.Mouli put the phone to theear and felt the blast of rapid fire talk of inspector Kamath briefing Mouli about the early morning attack on the police station and jail break
Mouli barked instruction.You know the drill Kamath, close all exits.stop all trains and buses.Send squads to Immlibund, jubilee BUS STANDS AND ALL RAILWAY STATIONS. send signals to search all vehicles.Iwill be at the station in fifteen minutes.
He rang up his boss and briefed him.In turn the IGP, chief secretary, Home minister, chief Ministers were informed as per protocol.Homi brushed his teeth, changed into informal jean and Tshirt, grabbed his gun in its holster and raced to his car .He was on his way to station with in ten minutes of the call .
At the Jubilee bus stand, bus scheduled to leave at 5.00 WAS STILL AT THE PLATFORM. Samaraweera woke up with a start and grabbed his friend’s hand to look at the wrist watch to know thetime.It showed 6.00 and bus had not moved.Why are they not moving out. His questions were answered by a police night stick being pushed powerfully into his stomach.he tried to get up and found a huge arm bearing him down.Helooked up in pain and caught a huge fist smashing his face.
The same hand now grabbed his shirt front and pulled .A thin mouth hissed walk out. He tried to stand up moving his hands to grab the rails for support. A boot kicked his groin and he fell flat on his face. He was dragged brutally out of the bus. His tender skin being scrapped badly. A police man standing outside on the platform , put a handcuff and he was bodily lifted and thrown at the back of a police pickup van. His two companions were already there with bloodied face and broken limbs.
Gopalpuram police station adjacent to Mahankali temple was not far away.The van sped out of the bus stand and reached the police station in next 5 minutes.Samaraweera was still in his senses and he wondered if any other policeforce in the world would have caught them so fast. At the police station he was photographed and his fingerprints were taken and he was kicked into a cell.He did not know what happened to his friends. A policeman was stripping to his waist .samaraweera saw a muscular man walk into the cell.samaraweera realised thathe was going to get his brains smashed in a third degree interrogation.He was not a fighting man and the very thought of becoming a punching bag unnerved him and he sat in the corner of his cell, trying very hard not to cry..
The other van carrying was speeding westward.The driver knew there was abig hospital called Legacy hospital was located somewhere there beyond kukatpalli/sanatnagar area. He knew Ravi was an important comrade and the movement expected big things from him in future.He had to be saved at any cost. He told his friends that they should get ready to deal with a medium size hospital.
Inside the van Ravi was becoming very jittery and alrmed to see uncontrolled flow of blood.As a young boy, he had seen many gunshot wounds in the LTTE camps and he had seen many people losing their limbs because the bullet was not taken out immediately.These days terrorists , bullets came treated with some chemicals to induce poisoning of blood fast.
He was glad that a hospital was located and soon they will be able to get his wound treated.. The van stopped and driver spoke to Ravi. This looks promising. It is three story high and well spread. there must be operation theatre and surgeons inside. Shall I drive in.
Ravi was impatient, yes please.do not waste time.