Meanwhile, the raging fire had spread to other parts of the house. It had swallowed the wooden furniture and other inflammable materials. Realizing the extent of the danger he was in, Zarif tried to stand up in a hurry but slipped and fell on his face. His clothes were soaked in blood that his followers had shed. It now struck him that he could be the next victim of this fire. Shaken and scared, he somehow managed to stand up and run towards the door, trampling the dead bodies under his feet. He reached the exit but slipped again and fell on the broken wooden door that was drenched in kerosene oil. His clothes caught fire, and in no time he was aflame.

He ran out with his hands up in the air and cried out aloud. His screams echoed wildly across the Valley, merging with the hundreds of other painful cries. His followers were too busy looting, burning and killing in the name of Allah, the merciful.

There was no help for the one who’d killed in the name of God . . .

2

As dawn broke, the sunrays lit up the blackened, half-burnt structure of what was once Balwant Singh’s palatial haveli. Moulvi Syed Zade, Balwant’s old friend and neighbour, stepped into the broken house with the help of his walking stick. ‘Ya Khuda!’ he exclaimed in deep pain and horror as he walked past the mutilated bodies. His eyes brimmed with tears as he scanned the room and saw the destruction. He bent down to take a closer look at the faces which had escaped the fire. The hurt and pain deepened the wrinkles on his face. The lifeless bodies of the two young boys in green and red shirts were his sons’. He touched their faces one by one and felt their pulse. The sword hanging loosely from one of their hands rolled out on to the wooden floor. With some difficulty, he managed to stand up, looked at the dead faces of his sons again and spoke in a soft but firm tone, ‘I didn’t expect you both to become such savages. I am ashamed to call you my sons. I regret to say that you don’t even deserve a respectful burial for the heinous crimes you have committed. What face will you show Allah? Is this what Islam has taught you?’ He shook his head in disapproval.