Coping with loss: The cutting of the cake that never was

Hamid Khan died on his birthdayin bus explosion on Sunehri Road

SHABQADAR:

Hamid Jan’s loving family, wife and two children, sent him to work on the condition that he promised to return by evening to celebrate his 32nd birthday. Perhaps a cake cutting was in order when he got home.

However, all plans of celebration went up in a cloud of smoke and twisted metal when terrorists bombed a bus in the provincial capital. Hamid was one of the people on board and died in the bus travelling from Mardan to Peshawar on March 16 which was attacked on Sunehri Road.

A native of Tangi, he was born on March 16, 1984 and died on the same day of the calendar in 2016.

His younger brother Arif Khan says he promised his wife, three-year-old son and six-month daughter that celebrations for his birthday would commence once he got home. However, instead of smiles and laughter, the cries of a widow and fatherless children are all the Jan household could offer on Wednesday evening. A family left devastated.

“Instead of celebrating his birthday, the family is mourning his sudden death,” the brother said.

Arif said Hamid Jan was a computer operator at University of Engineering and Technology in Peshawar and regularly travelled by coach to Peshawar to catch another vehicle to his workplace. Just last year, Hamid was elevated to BPS-15 and he was delighted over the promotion.

Their father, Tila Muhammad, was an employee of the Peshawar Chamber of Commerce and now he is at home due to some injuries he sustained in the past.

The brother adds Hamid was the sole bread earner of the family and led a happy, fulfilling life. “After his sudden death, it is not only his wife, children, father, brother and six sisters that are left mourning, but the entire neighbourhood,” he says.

Hamid was a kind soul and the first to lend a helping hand to anyone hoping to gain admission at the university. Naveed Khan remembers his friend as a hardworking individual who took out hours for his buddies in the evening even after a long, arduous day at work.  Today, Tangi Barazai area is in mourning as it has lost one of its most endearing residents.

Apart from Hamid, Salahuddin, 45, was laid to rest in Akbar Abad, Sardheri, Charsadda on Wednesday. He was a cook at a social welfare organisation working against drug addiction in Hayatabad, Peshawar.

He was the father of four sons and three daughters. He was regularly visiting his place of work from Charsadda and happened to be on his daily commute. He was laid to rest in his native graveyard.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2016.