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 ‘When they started shooting, I had to shoot back,’ says national-level markswoman who stopped abductors in Delhi 
 
 The two kidnappers saw little threat when their victim’s sister-in-law approached their vehicle, fumbling with her handbag. 
 
 But what Ayisha Falaq finally produced from the bag was a pistol. Even worse for the kidnappers, the mother of two is a national-grade markswoman. 
 
 
 
 “I just took my gun and shot them,” says Falaq, 32, who lives in Delhi. “I shot one in his leg, the other in the waist.” 
 
 She is being celebrated this week for her courage in helping to stop her brother-in-law’s kidnapping and for incapacitating the men, who were arrested soon after by police. 
 
 Falaq’s brother-in-law, Asif, was driving a taxi in northern Delhi on Thursday evening when two customers demanded he hand over his wallet. 
 
 Finding only 150 rupees, they beat Asif, a student at Delhi University, then forced him to call his family. “Your brother is with us,” Falaq says the men told them over the phone. “Give us 25,000 rupees, otherwise we will kill him.” 
 
 The family called the police and together they took their places at the location where the kidnappers wanted to collect the money. 
 
 “We called [one of the kidnappers] and told him we had reached the place, please come and take your money and free our brother,” Falaq says. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Falaq took up shooting in 2011 after her second child was born. Photograph: Monica Tiwari 
 
 Suspecting the police had been contacted, the kidnappers abruptly changed the meeting spot. This time, with the police hanging back, Falaq and her family managed to pull up behind the men’s vehicle. 
 
 “I came out and showed them the money. I said they could take it, my brother was more precious,” she says. 
 
 The suspicious kidnappers tried to flee. But Falaq’s family were ready, she says, using another car to block their escape from the front. 
 
 Trapped, “the kidnappers got scared”, Falaq says. “They started screaming to shoot my brother, saying we had cheated them.” 
 
 Falaq, who won a bronze medal at a national shooting championship in 2015, says she then saw one of the men begin to load his gun. “I was already outside of my car. I started to take my pistol out of my purse. 
 
 “I just wanted to scare them, to show them I had a gun,” she adds. “But when they started shooting at me, I had to shoot back.” 
 
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 She hit both men, who sustained non-fatal injuries, and although they tried to escape on foot, the police caught up with them quickly. 
 
 “I normally shoot targets,” she says. “This time I had to shoot people. But I wasn’t scared. I teach shooting classes and I’m a shooting coach too.” 
 
 Asif managed to escape unharmed. “He’s absolutely fine, he’s not injured, the medical tests are all right,” Falaq says. 
 
 She was afraid when police seized her gun and vehicle for forensic testing, but after the Indian media picked up her story, she says “everybody is supporting me”. 
 
 “The kidnappers maybe didn’t think I could shoot – they were worried about my husband or another man,” she adds. 
 
 Falaq took up shooting in 2011, after the birth of her second child, at the encouragement of her husband, also a competitive marksman. “He supported me, he helped me, he coached me, so credit should also go to him,” she says. ||||| New Delhi, May 28: National level shooter Ayisha Falaq used the shooting skills to rescue her kidnapped brother-in-law Asif. The two abductors, identified as Rafee And Akash were shot by Falaq at their legs in a bid to save Asif. The kidnappers were subsequently held by policemen present at the spot. 
 
 The incident occurred in Delhi’s Bhajanpura locality in the wee hours of Saturday. Asif, a student of Delhi University, was driving cab after his classes as usual. Rafee and Akash entered into his vehicle in Daryaganj late in the night as passengers. The duo asked Asif to take a different route which was isolated. 
 
 Asif, 21, was forced by Rafee and Akash to continue driving the cab despite his objection. After reaching an isolated spot near Bhajanpara, the duo asked Asif to handover his wallet in a bid to save his life. Upon finding only Rs 150 from Asif’s wallet, Rafee and Akash brutally thrashed him, as per reports. 
 
 A ransom call was made at 1 AM in the night to Alam Sher Falaq, the husband of Ayisha. The kidnappers demanded Rs 25,000 to spare Asif’s life. Alam and Ayisha immediately informed the police about the abduction, who directed them to reach Bhajanpara along with the ransom amount. A police team in plain clothes were tracking them. 
 
 “After reaching Bhajanpara, we called the kidnappers and told them we were standing outside Bikaner. They spotted a police van near us, which was already on the spot. They said ‘Asif would now not be spared since you roped in the help of police’. However, I told them to believe me, we have not called the police. The kidnappers asked us to move away from the police and continue walking straight,” Ayisha said, while narrating the chain of events, further adding, “The kidnappers were hiding behind a vehicle. Upon spotting them, I fired using my .32 licensed pistol on the ground to scare them. However, maybe the bullets bounced them and hurt their legs. The policemen close to us were then successful to arrest both of them,” Ayisha told India TV. 
 
 Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner (Eastern Range), however, said investigation would be conducted to ascertain whether Ayisha fired under self-defence, or she had the intentions to inflict injuries on the abductors.
– Two kidnappers in India grabbed a 21-year-old Delhi University student who was driving a taxi—and inadvertently messed with the wrong woman, reports India.com. "I just took my gun and shot them," says Ayisha Falaq, 32, the man's sister-in-law and a competitive sharpshooter. "I shot one in his leg, the other in the waist." It all started when the kidnappers beat the man for not having more money on him, and they called his brother at 1am demanding 25,000 rupees or "we will kill him." Little did they know that the young man's older brother was a competitive marksman—and that his wife had taken up shooting after the birth of their second child. In 2015, she'd won a bronze medal at a national shooting competition. After the kidnappers abruptly changed the meeting spot to confuse the police, Falaq and her family were able to pull up behind their vehicle and show them the money. "I said they could take it, my brother was more precious," says the woman now being hailed a hero in India. Using a second car, they trapped the kidnappers, who "got scared" and started screaming. Falaq pulled her pistol from her purse to show that she was armed, and says they began shooting at her. "I normally shoot targets; this time I had to shoot people," she says. She hit both men, slowing their attempted escape on foot without causing life-threatening injuries. Police have the two men in custody, reports the Guardian, and authorities will launch an investigation into whether Falaq acted in self defense. (This widow and novice sharpshooter outshot a national champion.)