On 8th December, 1928 a grand meeting of the leftist revolutionary militants was held in Delhi in the ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla or Old Fort or in between. At that time the buildings we see today between the above two ruins had not come up. It was one wild stretch from Kotla to Purana Quila. That was why it was possible to hold such big meeting secretly in which all the prominent revolutionaries had taken part.
The meeting paid tributes to all the martyrs and honoured them by garlanding their photographs.
Then, the revolutionaries took a pledge to win freedom for the country by destroying the British colonial rule.
The meeting elected Azad as its leader Commander-in-Chief. And the organisation was renamed ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Army.’ The future plans were drawn up in general and the conclave ended.
Police officer confronted
Now it was becoming imperative for the British rulers to port Azad behind the bars. It appointed an aggressive and wily police officer named Tasadduk Hussain on the job. The officer probed everything connected to Azad and collected evidence against the revolutionaries . When Azad heard about it he at first decided to have him shot dead. But it could get some more revolutionaries to the gallows which was not acceptable as the party had already lost too many of its members already. He decided to tackle the problem in his own way.
One day, he deliberately came across the officer and confronted him. Azad put his pistol to his chest and asked, “Tell me, Inspector, what do you want?”
This daredevil act stunned the officer. No words came out of his mouth. He just folded his hands in apology. The gun had beaten the daylight out of him. Azad warned, “It you ever again shadow me my gun would put bullets inside you.”
And he dismissed the officer with a contemptuous wave of his hand. The officer withdraw and he was never again seen following Azad.
One day, the police got a tip that Azad was reaching Kanpur from Lucknow by train. The police laid a siege of Kanpur railway station.
The train steamed into the station. The policemen were all over the platform. Azad got off the train and walked away showing no signs of fear as if the police didn’t exist. He exited from the gate. Out there a police officer stood in his way. Azad looked at him and touch his pistol. The officer turned pale and trembled. For fear of his life he backed out towards the backside of the railway station and disappeared.
Azad twirled his moustache and walked away.
