“Miss Shireen, these are dangerous times, and the university is a breeding ground for terrorists. Anyway, I will look into the matter.”
Shireen knew how desperate the situation was. She reached out to a KhAD official whose daughter was a student at her school.
“Hello. Good morning, Mr. Azam. This is Shireen, Haseena’s principal.”
“Good morning, Miss Shireen. What can I do for you?” Gul Azam replied. He sounded somewhat irritated that someone had called him at home before work.
“Unless it was an emergency, I would not have called you so early. One of your teams picked up a university professor, Saifullah Suleimanzai, a few hours ago. His daughter, one of our most talented kids, gave me a call a while back. Would you kindly investigate the situation?”
“Miss Shireen, these are dangerous times, and the university is a breeding ground for terrorists. Regardless, I will look into the matter.”
Meanwhile, the minister’s secretary informed Saleha’s mother that Saifullah was not being held in a detention centre or listed in official records. Rumours, however, suggested that he was picked up by a notoriously vicious and brutal KhAD agent named Khalid, and taken to a safe house in the suburbs of the city. It seemed less like a legal procedure and more like a personal grudge.
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The KhAD had vast resources at its disposal. It had informants in the military, all government agencies, student bodies, labour organisations, and residential areas. It was more powerful than the state.
However, only a few senior officers shared its ideology. Most staff members had joined the agency because of the job stability and benefits the organisation offered. They indulged in extortion, kidnapping for ransom, home invasion to burglarise the wealthy, and forced entries into shops and warehouses to victimise the owners and walk away with merchandise.
Thus, it was feasible to use bribery or authority to influence several of its operatives and obtain confidential information.
Perceiving the KhAD officer’s attitude relatively insensitive, Shireen called the minister’s wife, who gave her the information provided by the secretary. As soon as she scribbled down the location, she rang up Warda to remain at the minister’s house for safety, reassuring her that she would bring her father back safely.
Next, she gave a ring to Bekobod, followed by a local Mujahideen contact. Within the next half hour, Bekobod and Shireen were on the road with two AK-47s and a dozen hand grenades.