After 21 years in jail, Abbas talks ‘Gandhi’

“Follow Gandhi and his doctrine of peace!” These were the words of Abbas Ali Shahadi after stepping out of Nagpur Central Jail on
Saturday. He had spent 21 years in prison after being convicted for shooting at a group of Italians at the Sahar International Airport in Mumbai in 1988. It was obvious that the days he had spent in jail had softened the Palestine Liberation Organisation member.

“I am a free man,” the 40-year-old Abbas repeatedly said choking with emotion. He earned a nine-year reprieve for good conduct. While walking past the cubicles of jail officials, he exchanged pleasantries with them. Some inmates hugged the man who had become family to them. Abbas seemed pleasantly surprised on being greeted with a bouquet by a senior jail official just before he stepped out to freedom with hasty steps. He received it with delight and quivering hands.

Waiting outside the gate was Duncan Grant, the Briton who had been released from the same jail last year after being acquitted in the sensational Anchorage (Mumbai) paedophile case. Grant had specially come to Nagpur to assist Abbas. The Palestinian was delighted that his release had come in the holy month of Ramzan.

Twenty-one years is a long time to spend behind high security walls. Abbas seemed to have completed a life’s journey within.

He looked disillusioned with the idea of an armed struggle. “Several years of war has led us nowhere,” he said. “There is no point in fighting as you end up here (pointing to the jail). Everybody should become like Mahatma Gandhi.” Abbas sought books on Gandhi in jail but couldn’t read much due to language problems.