When our lives were spared by the robbers in Maputo.

By Shah A Siddiqui

It was a hot summer night in February 1993, in Maputo (Mozambique) when I heard, “Alam, Alam, look someone is at the window.” My wife tried to wake me up and before we could become alert, all of a sudden the intruder jumped on our bed, right from the window, and he cocked the gun. It was about 2 am local time. Our flat was on the 2nd level of the edifice. “Shhhhh. Don’t make any noise,” he ordered us at gunpoint and asked about if any other person is in the house. In the next room our three kids Shaheryar, Asfandyar and daughter Urooj were sleeping without knowing what was going on with their parents in the next room.
The robber was standing on our bed continuing to point a gun at us and warned that If we make any move or produce whatever noise, he would kill us. He was holding a submachine gunn. He was busy interrogating me about the cash, gold, and electronic items in the apartment, and in the meantime, my wife told me in Urdu that “Alam iss ki gun khali hay aap pakar lein” (Alam, he has empty gun, so you grab him). He was local Mozambican, but we were in shock when he responded with, “Hey my gun is loaded, and I can shoot you guys.” All of a sudden he pulled a wooden stick about 10-12 inches long from his shoulder bag and pushed it in the throat of my wife. He was very smart, and that's why he understood what my wife could have said to me. He was communicating in broken English. Normally Mozambican don’t speak English or any other language except Portuguese.
He forced us to hand over the key of the apartment first and pushed us down from the bed on the floor and gave us bags to fill with our valuables. We had no choice but to obey the order. The robbers warned us that more people are down the apartment and watching. “If you do something wrong, then I will kill you guys and run away.” He moved to another room where my kids were sleeping, but thank God the kids were smart and did not make any noise. The robber started forcing us to finish the job as soon as possible. My wife and I started to fill the bags with valuables like VCR, Camera, cutlery, pedestal fans and about $ 750.00 and a local currency about 60K cash. The burglar spent about 45 minutes, and those 45 minutes were like 45 years long as we were in the state of shock ad misery.
We had learned about such robbery and violent deaths in the urban center, but not in the diplomatic vicinity. We were sure that after sweeping everything, this guy will definitely kill us on his way back. He orders us to sit down on the floor and did not permit us to get to the kids' room. When he left us in the room we were just praying God to spare our lives. After 5 minutes when we felt that there is no movement in the room, we both slowly get up and started walking to our kids' room. The intruder had left our home with valuables and we were floored. We hugged our kids and thanked God for his mercy on us.
In the morning, I went down to see how he dared to jump through the window, inside my bedroom on the 2nd floor. He had used a grappling hook to scale the three story apartment.
I reported the incident to the local agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mozambique. They just said sorry for this robbery and promised to arrest the robber which was just a typical reply to the Embassy of Pakistan in response to our letter. I was also advised to go a nearby Police Department of the area and file a case of the robbery, which was a painful experience for me. The Police department was about a couple of miles from our apartment and around 10 am I drove there to file a report on the robbery incident. In Mozambique, they speak only one language and that is Portuguese. The police station was reminding me of a Pakistani police station where no one bothers to listen to you or register FIR(First Information Report). The language barrier was also a big problem. I tried to explain myself to them in my broken Portuguese, but they were not in the mood of listening or to realize the agonies of the victim. One Police officer was enjoying his breakfast with a cup of coffee and a piece of bread without butter or jam. The other guy was helping me to write the FIR in Portuguese. It took me more than an hour to get out of this police station. Bribery was very common at that time in Mozambique, and I am sure this country must enjoy the ‘bribes ‘as we do in the third world nations. I thanked and appreciated Mr. Fernando Mujui for his services and gifted both the officers Mt.500 each for their “courteous & quick response”.
The next day I received a phone call from the police officer Fernando, who expressed his gratitude for the gift and told me that in a couple of days they will come up with some results of the robbery.
It was more than 2 years’ time that I spent in Maputo and I was aware of their ‘working’ culture and official manners, I was not very much hopeful that the local authorities would be able to catch the perpetrator. After three days I received another phone call from the police station, and the officer on the phone was not the same whom I had bribed. When I asked about Fernando, the guy told me that Fernando was off for the day. The Police officer said, “I have news about your robber.” I was surprised that finally they found him, but he told me that the “intelligence agencies are still looking for the guy.”
The following day Fernando called me to the Police station and told me the story. I was surprised to learn all that he had to say. The robber was found to be an army personnel belonging to the government party ‘Free limo’ and due to ongoing rebel fighting in the country and bad economy, the government officials, army, and police all were suffering from hardship. This guy who robbed my apartment was on active duty in the daytime, but at nighttime he robbed me. Most of the ground forces and police officials used to be involved in the robbery and they targeted foreigners.
After this robbery incident, my wife was so frightened that at night she could not sleep for many months, despite the fact that we installed burglar bars for our doors, windows, and balconies. She used to wake up from sleep at night with dread. I was also not comfortable at night during sleep.
After this horrific robbery incident, I was desperately looking to buy a gun for our safety, and in a couple of days with the help of one local friend I bought a small handgun. It was the first experience in my life to have a gun and learn how to shoot. To have a gun under the pillow at night used to give me some sense of relief, but I felt more worry to hide it from my kids who were very young. My older son was 12 years, my daughter was 7 years and the youngest son was 5 years old. When I used to go to work, I would hide the gun in the safe to the knowledge of my wife, but I used to be worried all day until I reached home from work.
My family did not want to stay in the country after this robbery and I was compelled to write to my headquarters, to recall me, and after a few months, I was back to Pakistan.
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Shah Siddiqui,
Bureau Chief
The Muslims Abroad, Pakistan Abroad, Urdu Times
Columnist, Critique Writer, Freelance Journalist
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http://shahjeesblog.blogspot.com