Imagine having the skill, courage, and power to save a loved one from kidnappers. That is exactly what 32-year-old Ayisha Falaq did earlier this June.
Falaq is a national-level markswoman. In 2015, she won a bronze medal at a shooting championship. Little did she know her prowess would come in handy one day, when Falaq was able to save her brother-in-law from kidnappers in Delhi.
Falaq took the two kidnappers by surprise when she rescued her brother-in-law, Asif. “I just took my gun and shot them,” says Falaq. “I shot one in his leg, the other in the waist.”
Asif, who is a student at Delhi University, had been driving a taxi in northern Delhi when two customers demanded he give them his wallet.
Unhappy with the amount of money Asif had, the muggers beat him and forced him to call his family so that they could demand a ransom. The men told Falaq and her family words that no one ever wants to hear: “Give us 25,000 rupees, otherwise we will kill him.”
In a time of such high anticipation and stress, Falaq and her family were still able to keep their cool and do what they needed to save Asif.
Falaq’s family arrived where the kidnappers wanted to meet them. However, the kidnappers suspected the police had been contacted, so they quickly changed the meeting location.
Once they reached the new spot, Falaq showed them the money. “I said they could take it, my brother was more precious,” she recalls.
Although the kidnappers tried to flee, Falaq and her family were ready, and they blocked the criminals’ escape with another car.
This made the men uneasy, and Falaq says, “They started screaming to shoot my brother, saying we had cheated them.”
“I just wanted to scare them, to show them I had a gun,” she adds. “But when they started shooting at me, I had to shoot back.”
Falaq managed to hit both men. They sustained non-fatal injuries and the police were able to catch them.
“I normally shoot targets. This time I had to shoot people. But I wasn’t scared. I teach shooting classes and I’m a shooting coach too.” Falaq added, “The kidnappers maybe didn’t think I could shoot – they were worried about my husband or another man.”
Falaq took up shooting in 2011, after the birth of her second child. Her husband
is also a competitive marksman.
“He supported me, he helped me, he coached me, so credit should also go to him,” she says.
Thanks to Falaq’s bravery and skill, not only was her brother-in-law saved, but the criminals were prevented from doing harm to anyone else.
Featured Image by Mitch Barrie on Flickr
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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