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The colonel answered, "I don't understand.
How can you make this terrible demand?
We recognize our own mistakes were made,
But you should also know your son displayed
Such horrid threats against the villagers,
That, at the time, my junior officer's
belief that he should die was justified."
The cleric answers, "For this homicide,
You can not give a reason to excuse.
The witnesses who saw your men abuse
My son reported nothing of the kind.
They saw the men who callously consigned
My boy to suffer such a horrid fate,
And are unanimous. They all relate
That Qasim never gave your infantry
A single reason for this infamy.
A hundred men confirm the words I say.
Your men are liars and deserve to pay
For this offense by yielding up their lives.
I won't forgive while even one survives!"
