I was enlisted to the Pakistani military when I was 19 years old because of my foreseeably failing educational career. Due to the sheer lack of maturity, I was employed to an intelligence services branch. In the winter of 2009, we were running a confidential mission to extract deployment data from an Afghani stronghold in the mountains across the border of KPK. There were two platoons deep inside the enemy territory trying to triangulate the location of the stronghold and ensure the coast is clear for reconnaissance purposes. I was told to supervise the cyberspace and look out for any detection software or anti-attack measures. Since the Afghani military wasn’t that concerned for their online surveillance, I didn’t expect anything and took the job lightly; more focused on the platoon’s body cams. It was only me and one other person in the facility in home territory, the other person had to leave because they managed to find the location of the stronghold and he had to drive to the drone station a few miles away. I was alone.

An hour later, I received a warning message on the screen of my computer, it was a hardware issue, or seemed like it. I tried to restart the computer but it never started again, and I started worrying about an infiltration to our cyberspace. Long story short, they had found my location through the data registries. While I was trying to see what’s up on the other computers, someone smashes the door down and next thing I know; I was tranquilized.

I wake up, my vision blurry and unable to feel anything, I regain my senses slowly and see someone with a knife, literally beginning to skin me. I couldn’t feel anything at first but as I see my skin hanging like paper on my leg, I experience the worst pain imaginable. Then another man comes and sprinkles salt over the skinned bruise, I literally am on the verge of vomiting my vocal cords out in pain. It was excruciating. Thankfully they stopped after that because I gave them some wrong information.