13.2 Under the Influence

A brownshirt appeared on Marine Drive and two guys on a whaler approached slowly in the water in front of Jetty 4. “Go and ask them what do they want and call us on the radio,” ordered the national guard.

The white whaler sped out of the kandima, one guy holding to the prow grip cord and standing while the other on the outboard. The whaler reached the vessel and a crew shouted down, “Riot on board! We need effective force! SOS! Bandiya girls suffocated!”

Meanwhile, the coastguard was trying to contact the marine vessel, “Eight-Q calling Eight-Q-Delta-Charlie! Do you read me?”

Soon the message was relayed from the whaler on walkie-talkie and the headquarters geared up to send help. Two fast boats reached the vessel.

They carried Thompson submachine guns when they climbed aboard. White shirts – the police. It was still dark and rough in the sea.

They went after every Filipino on the ship. It was around 2:30 am.

Farida, Salt, Kish and Nashee were freed by some local crew. They were on the afterdeck on the starboard side beside hatch No 4.

Meanwhile, Captain Hiroshi was in the hospital on the ship. He endured the most severe injury taking a blow on his head which was delivered with a hammer. He did recover in the end but he was carried to Singapore for surgery. Two crews were stabbed, Sawsan took a cut, Allo was stabbed and Muja got shot on his shoulder. The radio operator survived unscathed. Samir had minor injuries and nothing serious. Those eight victims were first taken to Malé on fast boat. A brownshirt carried Hiroshi on his shoulder down the ship’s accommodation ladder.

When they reached Malé, they were carried on an ambulance to the Government Hospital around 3:15 am. By then a crowd by the waterfront observed as they heard about a riot and Bandiya dancers involved.

On the ship, those shirtless Pinoys were lined up on the weather deck. White shirts holding weapons and brownshirts acting physically on search and arrest. There were six coastguard boats around the ship and the lights back on the deck. The generators turned on and the ship under control. Some kind of normalcy observed.

However, some girls were missing.

At the light of dawn, around 4:45 am, they found Gulish lying half dozed on top of hatch No 5, on port side.

A brownshirt carried the girl on his shoulder to a fast boat already boarded by the surviving dancers. By now, dark clouds gathered in the sky and hid the moon. Some distant lightning detected in the north.

On this boat, six girls and three visitors arrived Malé with a percussionist in charge. As they stepped on Marine Drive, folks asked questions. Brownshirts carried Gulish on a stretcher to the ambulance.

“What happened to the girl?”

“She was raped,” replied Kish.

“Oh shit!” cried the pedestrian, “They raped the girls! Those Pinoys! They raped the girls on the ship!”

“What is her name?” asked another guy.

“Gul.”

Then another bunch was delivered on the waterfront. Six surviving girls and two remaining visitors.

“Is that all? Is that all?”

“Some girls are still missing,” replied Mona who arrived on the other boat.

“They are hiding them! They are hiding them!”

Another guy fumed, “I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them!”

Mona frowned. She saw in her eyes that six guys in the Casino were helpless to do anything when they cut Sawsan and dragged Suzi out. And the local crew weren’t there to be seen. They were scared. They did not have any courage.

Another girl was discovered lying on the poop deck near the flag with the golden necklace on her neck and the silver girdle on her hips. Another girl lowered on shoulder to a fast boat. Amira was despatched at 5:15 am and reaching Malé, left on the promenade on a stretcher, stark naked for fifteen minutes until an ambulance could come.

A Moonlight reporter, with his camera and a big flashbulb, caught those images and published on their journals. Moonlight Weekly, the English Edition, posted a series of pictures in black and white. He was there until the last survivor was brought to shore.

By then several local boats approached the ship. It was light in the sky in an overcast. They could clearly hear distant thunder, breezy and cold. Brownshirts with flashlights continued the hunt for missing girls.

At 6:25, Irma and Sirocco were discovered in the wheelhouse, both unconscious. Irma without a necklace and Sirocco without a girdle.

They were quizzed about the impossibilities of the occurrences for the brownshirts and the crew already checked the wheelhouse several times. They certainly did not see those two souls previously.

Farida and Salt remained on the ship for the last dancer to be recovered. Her mustard crepe dress ripped from a shoulder and torn down the rear to the waist.

Then they found Mannan in the bottom hold and they required a crane to lower him to an open deck boat. They were engaged on it when they found Nasha walking on the foredeck in total nude in the morning light. A fully shaved milky brown posture of a slim figure wearing gold and silver. When the brownshirts caught her up, she was unbelievably sleepwalking, a slight touch sent her limp.

“Can you explain this?” cried a brownshirt, “This is unreal! One moment she was walking and now she is dead like a doornail!”

Farida replied, “She is under the influence.”

And the guys understood it.

“Another!” cried one brownshirt from top of the bridge, “Here’s another one!”

This time it was Mariko lying on her back on the monkey island with gold and silver on her body.

Meanwhile, Mannan was lowered to a local boat with an open deck. The rains began to fall and the waves on the roll. A typical morning draught.

By 6:50 am, they were dispatched, Mannan on a local boat, Nasha and Mariko on a fast boat. They placed sheets of cloth to cover their bodies. On the waterfront, people dispersed a bit because of the rain.

“Another dancer!”

Another girl discovered lying on her back on the weather deck in the rain. It was Huda. She was lowered in the manner she was found. So said a local boat crew who observed in the rough sea, “A tourist was lowered to my boat on crane and stretcher. A complete white body from head to toe with golden hair.”

“Another one!” Marisa was lying inside a lifeboat on the boat deck, unconscious as any other girl.

They were all dispatched by 7:30 am.

Finally, Nazly was discovered in the engine room lying on a side. All the girls wore those ornaments when they were found – except the few who lost a few.

Farida, Salt and Fathey climbed down to a local boat in the rough sea. The dancers’ bags, dancing kits and instruments were loaded on the boat. They reached Malé at 8:30 am.

A television crew arrived in the morning and it could possibly be everyone in the media department. In the rain, carrying umbrellas, they successfully shot Nazly on a stretcher as she was carried over the promenade. At one point, her cover sheet slipped in the wind revealing a yellowish nude body. Those images weren’t even edited from the public eye when they aired in the news bulletin at eight in the evening. Farida Ikhtak standing in the way to correct the sheet clearly showed a tear on her dress.

Moonlight article disclosed that 9 girls from the dance group of Club Rehendi were brought unconscious from the cargo ship MV Courage. A male and a female got injured from stab wounds and one girl reported raped on the ship. 12 girls arrived unharmed.

According to the Government Hospital, dancers brought from the cargo vessel on Thursday, 22^nd June, were undergoing food poisoning. They were all released from hospital within 48 hours except the ship’s captain and Muja.

The shipping company expelled the entire Pinoy crew on the ship; 26 of them – half of the ship’s crew. An Indian was among them who was deported.

Muja joined an offshore shipping line and toiled on a ship in the broader world. He never did a Master.

 

Muaz woke up at ten in the morning, wrapped a towel and left his little room to the public bathroom at the end of the corridor. It was raining. After a quick wash, he returned and peered at the reception lobby.

“Good morning!” cried the girl at the reception.

“What’s good about this morning? Shiru!”

“Where is your girlfriend?”

“I dropped her home last night,” Muaz leaned on the counter, “Too bad I’m stuck here!”

“I can give you a sandwich breakfast.”

“That will do.”

“By the way, did you hear about the girls?”

“What girls?”

“It was on the radio this morning,” said Shiru, “A bunch of dancing girls intoxicated on a cargo ship.”

“Dancing girls? Do you know which group?”

“Club Rehendi.”

“Noxious!” he straightened, “What happened?”

“I heard they were brought to Malé one by one.”

“Where are they now?”

“At the hospital.”

He dashed to his room, grabbed his bag and ran to his bike. Muaz arrived at the hospital in the rain. Farida was still there. “How can I help?”

“My maid will prepare lunch. You can bring them here,” said Farida.