Gone too soon: The angel rests in the heavens

Rehan Rind dies after a brief battle with blood cancer at a private hospital

KARACHI: He was an avid reader of Marxism and his dream was to pen a novel one day. He had recently completed his Intermediate education and was teaching biology and chemistry to class nine and Matric students of The Educators, Naval Colony campus. Twenty-one-year-old Rehan Rind is no more.

After having been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, Rind lost in his brief struggle with the disease on Tuesday.

While his family is suffering from trauma and is naturally unable to talk about him, The Express Tribune reached out to his cousin, Ayaz Khanzada, and friend, Zafar Musyani, who spoke in detail about Rind’s life and dreams.



Khanzada and Rind grew up in the same house as their fathers were brothers. Their house was situated in Gazgi near the Khuzdar Degree College. In 2014, the two came to Karachi – Khanzada got himself enrolled in Karachi University for a Master’s degree while Rind lived at his sister’s house in Naval Colony, earning a livelihood through teaching at the school and giving tuitions. “He wanted to do a Bachelor’s of Science in chemistry,” shares Khanzada, adding that the young man was very intelligent, which is why he could teach students of class nine and Matric.

“Whenever I used to visit him during his treatment at the hospital, he used to ask me to sometimes rub his feet or his forehead,” recalls Khanzada.

The generous Baloch

An active charity campaign was initiated on the social media for Rind’s treatment. According to Khanzada, a number of Baloch living in different parts of the world donated for his cousin’s treatment. Musyani shares that it was mostly the middle-class Baloch in Khuzdar and other parts of Balochistan who raised the funds.

Rind’s message: Cancer hospital for Balochistan

Because Rind suffered from a painful condition at such a tender age, he wanted to save others like him from the suffering. In his last post on Facebook, dated August 15, he thanked all those who donated and prayed for him, saying that he believes that ‘humanity is still alive and you people testify it’.

“My beloved ones, I implore you people [that] you should not quit this campaign until or unless we get a cancer hospital in Balochistan whether I survive or not,” he wrote. “I beseech you not to stop this campaign, so that we [can] save more vulnerable lives.”

According to Musyani, Rind’s vision was vast. “He was conscious about the state of education in Khuzdar,” he says. “He used to say that if not the government, my friends and I should raise the funds to set up a library in Khuzdar.”



However, he adds, Rind began to focus on the state of health facilities in Khuzdar during the 40 days of his treatment at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH). “Rind has written in his diary that he was able to raise enough funds for his laboratory tests but he realises that there are so many people in this belt where Khuzdar and Quetta lie who do not have the money for even tests, let alone treatment,” says Musyani. “This is why Rind focused on the need for a cancer hospital for Balochistan during his final days.”

The beautiful young soul was laid to rest in Gizgi graveyard, Khuzdar, on Wednesday. According to Khanzada, a large number of people, including the Frontier Corps commander, attended the funeral.

A battle lost: The deadly disease

According to Ayaz Khanzada, who admitted his cousin, Rehan Rind, to the AKUH on July 28, said that Rind was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August this year. “The doctors had told us that with blood cancer, as in the case of Rehan, the stage is considered fourth as the bone marrow stops functioning,” he narrates as his voice breaks over the phone. “We knew that there was no chance of recovery.”

Talking about the deterioration of his condition, Khanzada says that Rind’s white blood cell count had crossed 72,000. An infection had spread from his blood to his lungs, causing him severe difficulty in breathing.

Consequently, the 21-year-old was shifted to the Special Care Unit (SCU), where he spent one week. However, his heart rate became 145 beats per minute for quite some time, when he was shifted to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). The doctors asked the family to consider the option of chemotherapy.

Resultantly, the remission induction method was applied on him to rapidly kill the tumour cells as the first step but it failed. With his lungs already having been affected, Rind’s kidneys also failed and his liver also developed some complication and his belly began to swell. He eventually breathed his last on Tuesday.