Shabqadar family’s dream ends in tragedy

PESHAWAR: A pall of gloom hangs over a house in Hassan Garhi area on the edge of Peshawar. The family is mourning the death of four members in Monday’s suicide bombing at a court complex in Charsadda.

Basriya, Gul Begum, Talha, Asma and Firasat were standing at the main gate of the Shabqadar court complex when the bomber struck. Four of them died on the spot while Firasat received life-threatening shrapnel wounds. She is now fighting the battle for life at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital.



Basriya and Gul Begum were not just sisters, they were best friends. They lived in a house separated by a wall, but their hometown was Shabqadar where they wanted to relocate.

In the Hassan Garhi house, Noor Muhammad holds a stamp paper for a newly acquired piece of land his family had to get signed to fulfil legal formalities. “I loved my son more than my five daughters. I did not enrol him in a school like my daughters,” he said in a tear-choked voice.

On Monday morning, seven-year-old Talha insisted on going with Noor. He gave in when the boy refused to budge and started crying. However, little did Noor know that it was the last time his son would make a demand.

Talha was the only son Noor had after five daughters. He was Gul Begum’s grandson. The father-son were so attached that Noor preferred taking him along to work. “Why did God give me a son when he had to take him away so soon?”

Basriya was excited to finally get her long awaited four-marla land in Shabqadar. The other family members were also thrilled for the ride to Shabqadar and tagged along. Basriya and her sister Gul Begum had to get the land papers signed at the court so she could be able to get the land in Matta Mughal Khel village.



Basriya’s daughter Firasat, her husband Gul Wali Khan, his brother Raj Wali, Gul Begum and the two children — Talha and seven-year-old Asma (Basria’s granddaughter) — also followed her for Shabqadar. The family did not know that they were en route to a tragedy.

Raj Wali said he was standing with his brother in the men’s queue waiting to get the papers stamped when he heard gunshots. He turned around when a suicide bomber tried to enter the gate and a policeman tried to stop him as the bomber apparently stepped towards the women sitting in front of the entrance gate.

He said Asma was the only daughter of her widowed mother, who fell unconscious with shock when she was informed of her loss.

Another family member, Sajid, told The Express Tribune that the joint family rented a small house located in the fields of Hassan Garhi, but they belonged to Shabqadar. “Basriya and Gul Begum had planned to construct a house on the land and shift the family there but, unfortunately, they could not fulfil their dream.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2016.