Somewhere in the middle of this, a young man, Manohar Surve, fresh out of Kirti College got implicated in a murder that he did not commit and was sentenced to life in Yerwada Jail. Things got so out of hand that Haji Mastan, who was respected by both sides, was forced to intervene and call for a truce with both the sides swearing on the Holy Quran to stop the bloodshed. Blood was on the streets and law and order became a joke. Soon the war between the Pathans and Kaskar brothers escalated into the worst gang war that the city had ever seen. At their wits end in controlling the spiraling crime in the city, the cops decided to end the Pathan menace by backing Sabir and Dawood against them. His name was Sabir Ibrahim Kaskar, and standing by his side was his younger brother and second-in-command, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. In the 70s, one young man stood up to challenge their supremacy and to end their reign of terror with terror. Often, retrieving their funds required muscle, which soon changed into вЂdadagiriвЂ™ or roughing up people violently. These men from Afghanistan had come to the city as money- lenders.

A story that gave birth to my forthcoming film,ДЇrom the 1950s to the 70s, Bombay was ruled by one particular gang who did not believe in the law of the land - The Pathans.

So when was it that the cops decided to kill and not catch? What was that single incident, which was the catalyst? Who was the first victim? Who was the first perpetrator? Who created the concept of encounter killings and why? Who was the mastermind? I set out to look for answers to these questions, and in doing so, stumbled upon a story more shocking than IвЂ™d imagined.

Shootout at wadala