Scene 1: **"The Carnival of the Damned"**
*Baramulla Town Square, October 27, 1947. 3:00 PM.*
The scent of burning cedar and spilled *ghee* choked the air as Gul Nawaz rode into Baramulla atop a commandeered police jeep, a garland of looted gold necklaces slung around his neck. Tribesmen swarmed the streets like locusts, shattering shop windows with rifle butts. A silk merchant wailed as bolts of *pashmina* were ripped from his hands.
"*Haramzado!* Thieves!" the merchant screamed.
Gul Nawaz shot him point-blank. "This is *jaiz*! Allah's bounty for the faithful!" He kicked the body into the gutter.
Nearby, Khurshid Anwar watched in disgust as men staggered drunk on stolen rum. He grabbed a looter dragging a screaming girl. "Fall in! Secure the hospital and telegraph office!"
The man spat. "We fight for paradise, *fauji*, not *your* orders!"
A tribesman smashed a temple's *murti*, crowning himself with its jeweled crown. "Srinagar next! More gold! More women!"
---
Scene 2: **"The Chapel's Last Prayer"**
*St. Joseph's Mission Chapel, 4:30 PM.*
Sister Teresa clutched her rosary as tribesmen battered the chapel doors. "Bar the windows! Hide the children!"
*CRACK!* The oak door splintered. Gul Nawaz strode in, rum-soaked breath fogging the cold air. "Crusaders! Your Jesus won't save you!"
Father James stepped forward, arms spread. "In God's name, spare the sick—"
Gul Nawaz shot him through the heart. "No gods here! Only Allah!"
Nuns screamed as tribesmen dragged them from hiding. Sister Maria crawled toward the altar. "Lord, forgive them..."
A *chhura* knife silenced her prayer.
Fatima hid beneath the communion table, watching blood pool around Father James' body. A tribesman snatched the silver chalice, urinated in it, and laughed.
---
Scene 3: **"The Orphanage"**
*Mission Orphanage Attic, 6:00 PM.*
Eight-year-old Amina huddled with twenty children under rotten floorboards. "Stay quiet," Fatima whispered, her hand over a toddler's mouth.
Below, Gul Nawaz roared: "Find them! One child's scalp = five rupees!"
A tribesman pried up a floorboard. Moonlight glinted on his knife. "Got you, mice!"
Fatima stabbed his eye with a broken crucifix. He toppled screaming.
"Run!" Fatima shoved Amina toward the roof. Bullets ripped through the fleeing children. Amina fell, clutching a torn teddy bear. Fatima dragged her behind a chimney as grenades blew the orphanage apart.
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### Scene 4: **"The Butcher's Bargain"**
*Mayor's Mansion, 8:00 PM.*
Anwar found Gul Nawaz feasting in the mayor's dining room, force-feeding a Hindu clerk pieces of pork. "Srinagar is *defenseless*! Why waste time here?"
Gul Nawaz grinned, wiping grease on his beard. "Srinagar won't melt. But this?" He gestured at piled loot. "This is real."
A radio crackled: *"Indian troops landed at Srinagar airfield. Advancing toward Baramulla."*
Anwar grabbed Gul Nawaz's collar. "You drunken fool! They'll slaughter us!"
Gul Nawaz drew his *tulwar*. "First, I slaughter *you*."
Tribesmen cheered as steel clashed—
*BANG!* Anwar shot Gul Nawaz through the throat. "Fall back! Or die like dogs!"
---
### Scene 5: **"The Hospital Massacre"**
*Mission Hospital Ward, 11:00 PM.*
Fatima pressed a tourniquet on a boy's severed leg when tribesmen burst in. "Kill the *kafirs*!"
Dr. Sharma stood before a ward of wounded. "I am Hindu! Kill me! Spare them!"
A tribesman beheaded him. "All equal before Allah!"
Patients were dragged from beds. A midwife shielded newborns with her body. "They're innocent!"
A grenade silenced her.
Fatima hid in a corpse pile, breathing blood. Tribesmen bayoneted bodies to "check" them. Steel grazed her ribs—
*BRRRAP!* Bren gun fire erupted outside. Indian voices shouted: "*Jai Hind!*"
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### Scene 6: **"Dawn of the Vultures"**
*Baramulla Rooftops, October 28, 1947. 5:00 AM.*
Fatima crawled onto a roof. Below, Sikh soldiers retook the town.
- Colonel Parampal wept at the orphanage's charred cribs.
- Sepoys vomited at the chapel's defiled altar.
- Brigadier Rajinder counted 3,000+ civilian corpses in the streets.
Parampal found Fatima clutching Amina's body. "We're too late," he rasped.
Nehru's voice crackled on a field radio: *"World must see Pakistan's barbarity! Photograph everything!"*
Fatima stared at the mountains where tribesmen fled. "Take the pictures," she whispered. "But no photo can capture the silence of dead children."
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End of the Chapter