"Welcome, dear viewers, to the first episode of our program, 'Where it hurts'. I am your host Manifest."

A live stream popped up on multiple social media platforms. The account was titled 'Where it hurts' and it was rapidly gaining views, a very strange occurrence as these accounts were all recently created with no content, no views, and no followers or subscribers.

"In this program, we will deal with the issues that have been festering within our nation and society. It will be an uncomfortable process but one we will have to endure. We need to clean and cure these festering wounds before they completely destroy our society. So please prepare for a deep dive into the problems that are festering with our society."

Manifest sat on a chair, a smooth metallic helmet worn on the head with a single, horizontal line of light where there should be eyes and clothes made of black synthetic materials made of that completely covered every part of the body. Not even the fingers were visible. The voice also sounded metallic and artificial, completely removing any human features from it.

"I would like to introduce our guest. He is a business and is the employer of tens of thousands of people. His business is based in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad but he also has branches in other cities of our country. He is one of the market leaders in his industry."

The camera slowly zoomed out and the background started making sense. There was a magnifying glass that was inspecting a wound filled with small larvas on the map of Pakistan. The wound being inspected was just one of the many. Some were light, some deep, and some still that were critical.

"Today's guest."

Manifest uttered as the guest slowly came into view, also sitting on a chair while wearing a plastic mask to hide the face. The guest was fidgeting as the camera slowly captured him.

"He is the 'boss' of the begging mafia of Punjab and specifically the twin cities. Tens of thousands of children, elderly, disabled, and transgender are forced to work for him. Nearly all of them are kidnapped and those who are not are simply bought. In this discussion, we will try to understand how and why this mafia is flourishing in our country even though begging is outlawed as well as the atrocities that are committed on those who are forced into this profession."

Manifest turned his focus towards the guest and started the interview.

"Mr. Guest, please give our audience a brief summary of the crimes that you have committed in this."

The guest visibly shivered as the voice called out to him and started speaking but the whimpers interrupted the flow, still, the host remained patient and waited for the guest to start.

"All of them."

"Yes, all of them, dear guests."

"Abduction, slavery, mutilation, rape, drugs, organ trafficking, human trafficking are the ones that I can think of."

The guest shuttered as he slowly spoke.

"Thank you. You have missed some but the main ones have been pointed out so it is ok."

The guest shuddered violently for a moment and then calmed when the host gave ok.

"Now let's start with the interview. How did you join this field?"

"I had been sold as a slave. Something happened that I don’t clearly remember but we were able to escape. In those years there were not too many beggars and neither had organized begging started. We were the pioneers of sorts. Then as time went on we kept adding more and more abandoned children to our group.”

“Why were the children abandoned?”

“Poor families, children born out of wedlock etcetera etcetera.”

“But they are mainly the newborns right, and they can’t be used for begging right?”

“When there are people holding children in their arms, it is a very heartbreaking sight for normal people. Just picture it, a person, especially a woman, with worn-out clothes holding a baby looking at you. It works wonders.”

“Yes it does work wonders, I myself have seen as I have also given money to them but those children. Curiously, I have never seen them cry. Not even once. How do you accomplish that?”

“Drugs.”

“But they are children months old, won’t they die if you drug them all day?”

“They need only a small amount and they will keep quiet all day long.”

“But do they die?”

“... Yes, but it is not frequent and it is not like anything can be done about it. In the time I myself used to beg, we saw children, just born, abandoned in a trash can. Most of the time their little dead bodies were thrown into the garbage. We used to pick them up and use those bodies while they were fresh and beg for money. Poor families also rent their children for little money. All of us something and live to see another day. Still, even with the drugs most of them survive."

“How kind of you. Nowadays the foundations like edhi are working to protect these children, has it not affected your business in any way?”

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“The government does not have any policy so what they can accomplish is limited and it is not like we need to pick up the children.”

“Of course, why pick one when you can create it yourself, right? But the main point I am intrigued by is whether the process is voluntary? ”

"What do you think?"

"Please provide a concrete answer for the audience."

"No."

"Can it be called rape? Can they be called sex slaves?"

"Why do you like asking so many stupid questions?

The guest announced. As the interview had progressed, he had slowly regained his calm now that he was fairly confident that someone up had not decided to dispatch him.

"Dear guest, it would be appreciated if you answer the questions to the point. The time of our audience is invaluable."

"Then why are you wasting it by digging some dirty stuff? It's not like they will care for long. For just a moment, they will have a high and cause some disturbance and then after some time it will return to normal, like always but it's not like I care. I will indulge you until my men arrive."

The host nodded as if he had not heard the ridicule and threat oozing from the tone.

"Please continue."

"Yes it can be called rape, yes it can be called slavery but so what. Can you do anything about it? And even if you can 'save' them and I am talking about all of them, how would you feed them? They have no skills, no money, not even a family. We allow them to continue living, if not for us many would have been dead."

"But do you not take almost all the money from them?"

"A necessary evil. Otherwise, why do you think the government officials allow them to beg."

Then he looked towards the camera and even though his face was not visible the tone softened as if filled with anguish.

"The things we are doing are awful, believe me, we know, but how else do we continue living? All of us are unskilled, even learning any skill requires money these days. Even a full meal is a luxury for us so how would we go about learning skills? I implore you, please just provide what little help you can to these children. It doesn't need to be money. Give them some food or teach them some skill so that they can do something more honourable in their lives. "

At the end he bowed to the audience, ending the heartfelt speech.

"Now let us go on.”

The host said, disregarding and unaffected by the heartfelt speech that had just been carried out.

“It is common practice amongst those in your profession to kidnap children, either from the hospitals or from the streets or any other avenues that emerge. What is the truth of this matter?"

"Sigh… unfortunately, not all are out to do good. Most of them, all they want is money and it doesn't matter to them if it kills people or destroys families in the process."

"A lot of the beggars are involved in drugs. Why and how does that happen?"

"A recurring cycle. When the children are given drugs for most of their lives, of course they are going to continue doing drugs. And let's not talk about the stress that comes when living such a miserable life. The only way they continue living is with the help of drugs?”

"Do you do drugs?"

"Just little compared to before. Just so that the body does not show side effects. It has taken years just to get this fat.”

"Why are the beggars mutilated, surely not all of the disabled were born that way?"

"As with the kidnappings, people can be really cruel, you know. When people start falling in the dark, it is very difficult to see how far they have fallen. The disabled, as unfortunate as it is, are the same as children, gaining higher sympathy than a fit adult and even greater when they are children. Still, it is a complex process, most of those in my knowhow don't really practice these barbaric methods."

"Is organ trafficking also prevail..."

The gust cut off the Manifest.

"Let me ask a question, why are you doing this? You are risking your necks, you know."

"Dear guest, please do not interrupt the interview again. It will be the last warning."

"Forgive me~"

He playfully replies raising his arms in surrender.

"Is organ trafficking prevalent in this industry?"

The interview continued on. Slowly plunging into a more and more dirty side. At the same time, the guest slowly started weaving a miserable persona. He knew not all would be affected but he needed just enough of them to be fooled that if this thing did end up blowing, these people would fight amongst themselves instead of focusing on him.

The guest also took liberties during the answers, though because the questions were being answered satisfactorily, Manifest did not care. Not replying to any questions or taunts that were thrown their way.

As they slowly started discussing the government officials that were supporting this industry, the guest slowly started giving vague answers. No names were given, no designations were given, nothing that could identify them but the guest did not even want to discuss the topic and tried to steer away the conversation but the host did not give him any leeway. Slowly, steadily his anger grew as he had to provide some names and their details. They were not of the truly important peoples but it was problematic.

As the thing slowly went into even nastier stuff, he started realizing that all the talk before had been just a useless blabber.

“Hey! Enough is enough. I gave my time to you even when you forced it but now I am going.”

He pushed himself up and tried to turn away but stopped.

“Dear guest, I had warned you not to disturb the interview.”

A massive revolver had appeared in the hand of Manifest. It was black in color and to emphasize, massive, so much so that it looked more like a rifle. He took one glance at the nozzle and laughed.

“Where did you pick up this toy from. Surely you do not expect me to be afraid of this?”

“Mr. Guest, I will ask you last time to please sit down.”

“But hadn’t you said that last time, let me thi…”

Bang

“Aggggggggg!!!”

A massive hole pierced through the leg and then penetrated into the ground after making a crater around it. The guest fell down screaming. The revolver again disappeared while from the background more people came into the camera, all of them wearing similar black clothes made of similar synthetic material. One of them injected the guest with something as he continued his screaming. Rapidly, the bleeding stopped as the wound clotted.

Then started the curses, the threats, and slowly but surely came the knowledge. The true knowledge and not the flowery words that tried to beautify the actual reality.