Qaid-E-Ishq

Prologue

The painful whimpers filled the dark room as a young woman sat with her back against the closed door, tired after banging and screaming to let her out. Her head rested against her knees as she cried. They say that life throws at you what you can face, but Laila Qureshi didn't think that she could bear being sold off to a fifty year old man.

With tears streaming down her face, her head covered with her dupatta and her hands held up as her lips mumbled prayers, she prayed to her Lord for a Farishta to lead her out of this darkness.

~~~~

"Sarkar, hume maaf kardijiye," the man trembled as he sat on his knees, joining his hands and pleading for his life as if the devil himself has come to wipe away his existence. Before he could utter another word, the birds chirped away as a loud gunshot echoed, the dead man falling with a thud and then there was nothing but the deafening silence.

(Sarkar, please forgive me.)

"Hume faraib logo se sakht nafrat hai. Aur aaj ke baad humari peeth peeche vaar karne ka khyal bhi aaya toh uska hashar isse bhi bura hoga," the boisterous voice of the young man in his late twenties rang out, instilling the fear among the crowd surrounding him, their heads bowed down in submission to their new Sarkar.

(I hate cheaters. And if anyone of you even thought of back stabbing me, the consequences would be even worse than this.)

The name of Aamir Akram Khan was chanted in the streets of Muzaffarpur as the man turned around, wrapped in his chadar, walking away with his head held high as if he owned the world while his men trailed behind him closely.