Eradication of Dissent - 06, Riot Out of Control

Col. Bose watched with horror as gun in the woman's hands came up and fired at the Governor. It was too quick for him to prevent. Before Arindam Bannerjee's dead body slumped to the ground, Col. Bose tackled the murderer to the ground. As he gave way for the woman to be manacled by his subordinate troopers, Col. Bose realized that things are getting even more heated up. The mob outside the barricades were rejoicing at the cold blooded murder and the jeering noise almost blanked out the wail of an ambulance coming from the administrative building. 

"Free Ms. Ghosh, Free Ms. Ghosh!!" The mob chanted. So that was the name of the murderer. Ms. Swetha Ghosh, fiancee of Arun Chand, the Communist Party chief in Calcutta, instigator and planner of several attacks, and one of the several arrested in Operation Broke Sickle.

The noon sun was making the city sweltering hot and dense humidity of Calcutta was bringing out torrents of sweat, which added to those created by the pressure of the situation. Col. Bose lifted his cell phone and dialed a number.
"Lt. Gen. Singh, this is Col. Satyajit Bose, Commissioner, Bengal Province. Sir, we have a massive protest mob in front of Provincial Administration building and Governor Arindam Bannerjee has just now been assassinated....... Yes Sir, I am responsible, I know that very well too..... Sir, I need orders now. Situation is getting violent and we may have a major law and order issue here....... Yes Sir, thank you. I shall carry it out."

Satyajit looked at the wide street in front of him. The provincial headquarters is at the apex of a triangular junction and the protesters were filled along the avenue straight ahead. The four lane road, leading to the headquarters was flanked by commercial buildings, many of which were still open. The City Hospital is three blocks away and the principal road to the hospital is along this main road. So far a lane was left alone for the traffic to pass through, but that could change any moment.

Col. Bose spoke a few instructions on radio. 

Sushil Nair is getting very very angry. Coming from Kannur, a Communist bastion in Kerala, he had felt right at home in the Marxist dominated campus of the Presidency College where he was studying Law. He was an ardent admirer of Arun Chand, the fiery Marxist activist and a staunch hater of the Kingdom of Cochin. he had rejoiced reading news reports of several attacks on RCPF personnel for the past few weeks but was also slightly disturbed when some attacks were conducted on public places were ordinary people were killed. He had expressed his qualms to Arun Chand, but was reassured when advised that a few sacrifices were necessary for the revolution. The deaths of those tens of people would lead to a better life for thousands tomorrow. Though a fervent communist, Sushil was not tempted to join the more aggressive activities. That all changed with arrest of Arun Chand during when Sushil's room mate and an aggressive activist Praphul was killed. Now Sushil was rage personified as he faced the hated Cochin capitalists. He was ecstatic when Comrade Swetha, killed the Governor. Now he was once again angry when the police arrested her and removed her. He was thus the first to reach into his shoulder bag and lob a rock at the police barricade.

"TAKE COVER, TAKE COVER." Col. Bose's voice boomed over the police barricade as the first stone soon became a barrage of stones that showered upon the armor barricades. One policeman was injured severely when in the hurry to cover his colleagues flank, a fist sized rock hit him in his right eye. The Constable was immediately evacuated to the rear and his position reinforced by a trooper from a second Battalion that had arrived to reinforce the barricade.

"Col. Bose, Calling Col. Bose , Over."
"Col. Bose here, Over."
"Colonel, this is Maj. Sidharth Pai of ARPF Bengal. We are arriving at your position within 15 minutes. Any orders, Sir?"
"Major, stay one block away, I want your units to stay out of the avenue for now. What is your strength?"
"Sir, I currently lead a force of 3 Battalions. Maj. Aravind Joseph is 20 minutes out with another 2 Battalions."
"Okay Major, listen up. Cut off the civilians from this area. The entire block is to be cordoned off. Now, we would be attracting the majority of the ire from the mob, so use that time to clear out civilians from this block. I think you would need one company for that job. Do it discretely, try not to attract attention of the mob. We must contain them for as long as we can."
"Yes, Colonel."

"Col. Bose, this is Capt. Irfan Khan, of Airborne Police Force. Sir, we are now arriving at the scene. Any instructions, Sir?"
"Captain, patrol around, make sure that you inform me if there are any possible breaches in the cordon, okay?"
"Sir, Yes Sir."

The sound of an APF Bell 212 above the streets gave greater anger to Sushil. "Charge the Barricades. Break down their walls!!!" Sushil screamed as the mob started surging towards the barricades.

The RCPF troopers redoubled their push on the barricades and the well designed barricade designs efficiently withstood the pressure.

Maj. Binoy Bakshi, the Assistant Commissioner was getting tense seeing the surging mob and the buckling barricade. He turned to his superior and said,"Colonel we need to start responding now, or the line would be breached."

Col. Bose surveyed the frenzied faces of the thousands strong mob in front of him and said, " No major, we cannot react unless they turn violent. We react only when they do a crime. For now, hold the line." Col. Bose was somber as he saw the afternoon sun glaring down the street. The concrete canyons were like reflecting mirrors and it was as it the fury of the sun was directed towards burning him. 'No I will survive this, I shall fulfill my mandate'

"Col. Bose, this is Major Pai. We are evacuating the streets now. We are using the rear doors to do so."

As Colonel Bose watched, the shutters of the buildings lining the streets started coming down and grills locked shut. A few buildings at the far end of the street are now being evacuated by APF troopers in full riot gear. The cry of one child being taken away from her day care center alerted the mob to what was going on. The subtle deception of RCPF enraged them even more and they started destroying the cars and other vehicles in the street. Crow bars and steel bats were smashing the cars and an RCPF Jeep was over turned and set on fire. 

" Colonel, this is Capt. Khan, we have a problem. An ambulance is entering the street from East going towards the City Hospital. They passed by before the cordon was in place. We are trying to raise it but there is no response."

"Oh My God," Colonel Bose's voice was grave as he saw the ambulance entering the street at high speeds, sirens blazing. He could hear the helicopter's radio operator frantically trying to alert the ambulance, to no avail.

Peter Johnson was tense, albeit for another reason. He had responded to an emergency call to find a bike accident victim. Now the young lad was unconscious as the paramedics were trying to revive him. His conditions were critical and his head injury potentially fatal. He had to be rushed to the City Hospital, it was the nearest Shock Trauma Center in a 12 kilometer radius. The radio of the ambulance was unfortunately damaged when in his haste to clear the accident site, Johnson unknowingly yanked out the speaker cables. So the only worry as he entered the Collectorate Boulevard was about reaching the hospital in time. His eyes widened as he saw a huge mob staring wildly at him. Several cars were burning in pyres and many buildings had their facades burst in. Screaching to a halt Johnson attempted to reverse but found his vehicle surrounded by the angry mob.

"Please let us through, I have an accident victim here. Please he will die. No, No , Please Nooooooo." Johnson's last vision was that of a frenzied youth driving a dagger at his chest.

"Attention, Attention, cease your violence. Please disperse. Disperse or you will be fired upon. Disperse immediately." The helicopters blaring out the warning from the Colonel only angered the mob into more frenzy. 

"Colonel, there is no response, we must charge now." Maj. Bakshi said.

"Relay the message once more."

"Attention, Attention. This is Colonel Satyajit Bose. Cease your violence and disperse peacefully or lethal action would be taken upon you."

Again crowds paid no attention and vandalism continued. A few Molotov Cocktails were lobbed at the Police barricade and despite the scalding flames the RCPF troopers held the line.

"This is your last warning , disperse or you will be fired upon. Keep your hands in the air and walk away from the Police Barricade."

Several guns were introduced into the melee by the rioters and several shots were fired at the Police line. Some people in the mob attempted to walk away, heeding their innate survival call but these 40 or so people were caught by the more violent members of the mob and beaten to death. Only 2 men managed to reach the ARPF barricade line that now secured the far end of the street.

"Okay. I guess this is it. Maj. Bakshi order the units to roll out."

At the Colonel's orders, SWAT snipers started taking positions at the rooftops of the buildings along the avenue. At the barricades at the gate, the ARPF battalion primed their weapons and trained them on the rioting mob. Similarly all along the street and at various side roads, ARPF cordons trained their weapons on the mob. The mob now started realizing their state of affairs.

"This is Col. Bose. All units fire above the mob, one volley, let us try to scare them off now."

At all the pickets the assault rifles were angled to the sky and fired one volley of shots, taking care not to target at anything. The report of the gunfire caused a brief pause to the rioting. As they tried to decide on what to do now, Col. Bose's voice blared from the skies.

"This is your last warning. Lie down on the ground, with your face down and hands and legs spread wide. Anyone who is standing would be killed. Stay down and surrender or you shall be killed."

The mob once again resumed their rioting and Col. Bose gave the order, "Fire at will."

The two RCPF columns fired at the mobs. It was indiscriminate fire at shoulder, stomach level, never angling down. The ARPF Battalion at the far end of the street started walking their way down the street killing off anyone who had a weapon in his hands. People who were lying face down and alive were searched on the ground itself for any explosives or weapons and then manacled and taken to awaiting prison buses. As the battalion made their march of death along the street the panicked mob started running helter skelter.

Sushil Nair's revolutionary frenzy had dissolved as he witnessed the brutal murder of the ambulance's occupants. He realized with a shock the hollow nature of the ideology he believed in. The violent scenes he saw, the ambulance driver twitching on the road, his entrails strewn around him and the paramedic who was doused with petrol and burnt alive, and the other paramedic who was stripped of her clothes and mutilated before beheaded, for no other crime other than that they worked for the Kingdom of Cochin. Sushil remembered the days when an ambulance would arrive only an hour after being called, and now ambulances were only minutes away. What crime did these ordinary people do? No, this is wrong.

He knew that some of his comrades shared his thoughts as he saw the shock and horror reflected on their faces. Hearing the call to surrender, he was starting to make his way towards the rear of the mob when he saw what happened to those who were trying to escape. He saw a cute girl he had ogled in Party Political being beaten to death, he saw the cook at his hostel canteen being hacked to death. Sushil was petrified. To stay was horror, to run was death. What could he do? What could he do? As he was dazed around in shock he saw the police column marching towards the mob firing. In the panic of the moment Sushil had not heard about the instructions to lie down and surrender. He started running around trying to dodge bullets as best as he could and suddenly saw the head of the person in front of him explode in a burst of blood and tissue. With blood of another man in his eyes, Sushil saw the snipers in the buildings above taking down people with guns. Sushil ran towards one of the alleyways hoping to avoid the carnage. His ears were deafened by the sound of the explosion of a car he himself had set on fire, so he could not now hear the screams from the policemen standing by the barricade, their rifles leveled against him. He ran straight towards them.

Constable Suman Shinde saw the young man running towards him with a backpack and blood on his face. His eyes seemed wild with madness and he looked like he was a suicide bomber with a bag of explosives strapped to his back. As his colleagues were taking down other such rioters by his side, Constable Shinde breathed a prayer for his salvation and fired at the young man.

Sushil felt the slugs hitting his chest and arms and felt a leaden weight pulling him down as his legs crumbled under the impact of further bullet wounds. As the searing pain racked his body Sushil thought about how much better his life would have been if he had listened to his mother and not have come to the rally today. His mother at their home in Kannur was the last thing Sushil saw before light went out of his eyes.

An hour of indiscriminate firing had made the Collectorate Boulevard a graveyard. The gutters were running full of blood. Shell casings lay strewn around the street. After the last of the prisoners were taken away to the jails Col. Bose called for the final tally.

Maj. Aravind Joseph said, "Sir, 53 people have surrendered, 209 have been injured and a total of 3562 have been killed. Police casualties are 25 dead and 34 injured."

"Hmm. Okay, roll out your troops, Major. We shall close down this block for another week to conduct the forensics. Let us also pray a few prayers for these stupid dead communists."