January 09, 2013

Alhamdolillah, our book From Indus to Oxus is now also available on Amazon. Those outside Pakistan can now have it easily InshAllah.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/9699676000


Alhamdolillah, our book From Indus to Oxus is now also available on Amazon. Those outside Pakistan can now have it easily InshAllah.

Those in Pakistan can order directly from our office and call or sms at 03215001370. Our team member Imaad Khalid shall coordinate for Pakistan dispatch, InshAllah. In Pakistan, this unique book is priced at Rs: 2500/-.

Just to give you the idea what kind of insane but factual adventures these memoirs contain, we give just a few paragraphs from this entire amazing book of adventures of a young man in those those romantic times. This may sound insanity but this was Jihad in Afghanistan - the most profound Muslim resistance movement of the 20th century. Let us take you on this wild ride :)

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"The next 15 minutes were the tensest and gut wrenching moments for me. We were driving like mad men, cruising at the maximum speed which that old rickety Russian jeep could muster, while just a couple of hundred meters on our right, pandemonium was lose with the enemy post being under attack. I looked towards my right and saw the incredible firework and patterns of tracer bullets flying in both directions. Despite the fact that our headlights were on and we were cruising at full speed on the main road, we did not draw any fire. That was nothing short of a miracle. But while we were crossing the post, the next threat triggered panic in my soul. The driver was unbelievably calm, even joking with me under such tense environment. I was sitting in the front seat of the jeep and he pointed towards a small stone on the road which was now dimly visible. “This is a mine and I shall drive over it. You will see,” He boasted of his driving excellence. The lump in my throat almost choked me. In a flash, the white stone disappeared under our jeep and nothing happened. But now, I could see many white stones on the road spread in confused pattern. Now almost touching 70 miles per hour, the driver was driving in a wild zig zag manner, avoiding the landmines, sometimes driving over them and keeping them between the wheels or sometimes bypassing them from the sides. “Now I will drive between them,” He pointed towards two stones which were placed just wide enough to block a truck or a tank. But if our jeep had to go between them, the margin of error would be zero. Few inches on either side would be the total space available to us if we had to go between them. I closed my eyes and recited a prayer and then watched again in silence while the jeep approached the mines. “We cannot make it, these are too close!” I screamed inside my head and waited for the jeep to explode into smithereens. In a flash, we crossed the mines and nothing happened. We were clear of the minefields.

But even before I could let out a scream of joy, we heard a loud human voice on the roadside asking us to stop and identify ourselves. It was a Mujahideen check post which was placed there to block any enemy advance from the road. No one at the post expected us to arrive at that time, in total darkness, with our headlights on, at such fast pace, passing through the battle raging on the post and then crossing the minefield. All our credentials marked us as a hostile vehicle. The driver was too fast and did not understand the orders given. He did not stop and just kept pushing forward though now at a slightly slower pace. This time it was trouble, and serious one.

Even before anyone could react, a man appeared in the middle of the road right in front of us. Illuminated by the headlights, I saw him pointing his AK47 towards the jeep and then he fired a burst of automatic fire. I saw the flash rising from the barrel as I instinctively ducked to avoid the incoming volley of bullets which just went over our heads. The headlights had blinded the Mujahid and he had aimed slightly higher missing us by whiskers. Now the driver slammed on the brakes, hurling out abuses while he introduced himself. Even he was shaken this time. We had finally come out of the danger zone and now slowed down considerably as we continued on the road to Khanabad.
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