KARACHI: For Malik Rizwan Awan's family, a teenager who went missing seven years ago during the bomb attacks on Benazir Bhutto’s caravan in Karachi, every single day seems like the tragic October 18, 2007.
“It has been seven long, hard years waiting for him. We still don’t know where he is. Every day for us is like October 18,” said his elder brother, a former PPP activist, Farooq Awan while speaking to The Express Tribune.
As the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto prepares for a massive rally at the Mazar-e-Quaid, and promises a historic jalsa on Saturday on the seventh anniversary of the bombing, which left at least 180 people dead, Awan has only one request for young Bhutto scion.
“If he or the party has any information about my brother, please share it with us. Please let us know what happened to him.”
Recalling events of that tragic day, Awan says his younger brother Rizwan, who had passed his matriculation, was excited to see Benazir Bhutto return to the country. He attended the massive welcoming rally along with his brothers and other family members.
The older Awan remembers that one other other brother was with Rizwan when the first blast occurred. But when the second took place and panic took over, Rizwan was nowhere to be found. “All our other family members and relatives were safe but we could not find Rizwan.”
Awan, a former deputy information secretary of the party’s Sindh Peoples Youth Organisation, claims that as many as 21 people went missing during the incident.
“Some were found later on, but many, including my brother, have still not been found.”
Over the years, they visited jails across the country, paid several trips to the government hospitals and went through the Edhi morgue. “We even took our DNA samples but nothing came of it.”
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Thanks For Your Support !
This is just heart breaking and to think that this boy is not the only one missing from that day is even more painful. May Allah help his family and they find him soon.
It is very painful time for the family. I hope that one day he will come back and all his family will have good time again.
May Allah protect all of us from all the tragedies. Ameen
It gives me heartaches to even think about so many young and old blown away by terrorists. It is a harsh reality and sad to say but there are no answers to Rizwan’s whereabouts. So many people were blown away into pieces and let us hope Rizwan was not one of them. The family does need a closure but let us continue to hope and pray that one day Rizwan comes back to his family.