June 30, 2002

Amina Dossal writes about her encounter with robbers

The year 1998 went extremely well till August. Even my business continued to increase year by year. Unfortunately on September 1 at 8.40 pm, five dacoits entered our house by scaling the side walls. Armed with TT pistols they first went to Nooroon’s annexe. We were absolutely unaware of this, as we were all in the main house.

They switched off the lights; she put on her bedside lamp and to her surprise saw a tall man pointing his pistol towards her, “Give me the keys of the cupboard.” A little stunned, she gave them to him and he took all the money she had.

Then he and another man entered our main house, keeping one dacoit at the entrance of the gate, one in Nooroon’s room and one in the garden.

They entered our house from the pantry, where our maid was eating dinner. The girl asked him, “Kis ko milna hai bhai?” (Brother, who do you want to meet?) He showed her the pistol, and shouted, “Shut up!” and at gunpoint brought her to the TV lounge. As they passed the living room, he saw Ali and Sanam who were playing table-tennis. He pointed the pistol at Sanam and ordered her to lead him to the other members of the house.

She took him to Ali’s study, where Tazeen was trying to make a telephone call and Saher was sitting beside her. They too, were taken to the TV lounge.

Then finally they entered my bedroom where I had been packing my office bag whilst talking to Rumi. We were absolutely shocked to see them. “You come out to the TV lounge and be quiet or we’ll shoot you all.”

You should have seen our condition. We just looked at each other dumb-founded. But God was with us. He gave us strength, patience and wisdom to deal with them.

They asked Rumi, “Are there any other members in the house?” Rumi’s reply was tactful and clever. He said, “Yes our driver and cook, they’ve just gone out and should soon be back by 9.30 pm.” They said, “So what? We’ll drag them in, too.” Rumi said, “They are Pathans and will resist, we want no shooting. Do what you have to as soon as possible and we will keep quiet.” — This was just a clever ploy on Rumi’s part, there was no driver or cook!

I started praying, asking God to come to our rescue. He was our only hope — I was panicky as most of our diamonds and gold jewellery worth Rs 350,000 was in the steel cupboard. We would never hope to replace it — if it was taken. They started off with Rumi’s room and asked for his cupboard keys. Rumi told them, “Here they are, but just remember two things, do not touch any one of us and do not shoot. You may take whatever you want; our house is all open, as you see.” They said, “Oh, good! No resistance, all of you sit quietly here.”

They ransacked the cupboards and collected jewelry and cash worth Rs50,000. While the dacoits were in Rumi’s room, I quietly slipped into my room from the TV lounge. I was worried about the steel cupboard key lying in my cupboard. With God’s help, I dared to open my cupboard and quietly took out all new notes which I had brought that day.

As soon as I took out the money, a dacoit entered my room. I quickly told him to take the money, pretending that I had taken the money out for him. He was glad to see all the new notes. As he stashed them away, carefully and without a sound, I took the steel cupboard key and pretending to bend down, put it away under the big boxes of biscuits and sweets which I always keep in the cupboard for my office staff. Just after this undetected act, they showed me the pistol and asked me to leave the room.

Believe me, they upset everything of mine except the row of boxes of biscuits and sweets. They were interested in gold and cash, not biscuits! They also searched my office bag and took a few thousand rupees from my wallet. Fortunately, they were in a hurry, thanks to Rumi’s warning regarding the cook and driver. They left the steel cupboard without touching it.

Thanks to our low walls, they were on their guard and in a terrible hurry to leave, as they were worried of being exposed or caught by the driver and cook and even the neighbours. As they left at 9.15 pm they sternly told us to sit only in the TV lounge for twenty minutes and not to move; above all, not to inform the police, otherwise we would not be spared.

We lost a substantial sum and were most depressed. Dear Ali, who was then 13 years old, said, “Dadi, being in insurance, you must be having insurance for the house and theft?” It did not occur even to me, Ali drew our attention to insurance! We were much relieved and fortunate to recover our losses from the insurance company. For his prompt thought I gave him

Rs100 on the spot. He was so happy, but not as happy as we were, I’m sure.

Excerpted with permission from
What can’t a woman do...: an autobiography
By Amina Dossal
Published by author
Available at Billboard, Shop #2, Shadman Centre, Main Clifton Road, Karachi
Tel: 021-586 2964 and Fatimid Foundation, Britto Road, Karachi
Tel: 021-7225284
181pp. Rs285 (all sales proceeds to go to Fatimid Foundation)

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