‘When will my baba get up?’

Toddler unable to grasp that her constable father died in Ferozepur Road blast

LAHORE: Is my father sleeping? When will he get up? These are some of the pressing, if not unanswerable, questions the three-year-old daughter of a martyred constable, Ghulam Murtaza, asked on Tuesday morning.

Her father was one of the policemen who lost his life in the deadly suicide blast on Ferozepur Road on Monday. Sitting on her mother’s lap, beside her father’s coffin, Kashaf Batool was unable to grasp the fact that the constable had gone to meet his maker.



The mother told The Express Tribune that her daughter got up early in the morning and started asking questions. “She is unable to understand the gravity of the situation caused [in our home] by the blast on Monday.”

The coffins of two brothers being taken to Panj Peer graveyard. PHOTO: APP

The girl later started playing with the other children, ignoring the wailing and weeping around her. She was ultimately brought closer to the coffins of her late father Ghulam Murtaza and uncle Constable Ali Raza.

When she asked if the two were sleeping, her mother could not control her emotions and burst into tears.

As the coffins of the martyred cops were lifted up to be taken to Panj Peer graveyard, the three-year-old asked where her father was being taken. The mother pacified the toddler by saying he was “going to office”.

The tragic incident meant that Ghulam Murtaza left behind his wife, daughter Kashaf and six-month-old Ayyet.

Muhammad Mustafa, the elder brother of the deceased, said a friend of Ghulam was on duty at the vegetable market a few minutes before the blast. He asked the constable to accompany him to grab water bottles from a nearby kiosk. “Sadly, Ghulam refused, saying he would hold station as his colleague was not on location. That is when the blast occurred,” he said regretfully.



He said that they were five brothers who loved each other dearly. All the other brothers used to call Ali Raza the ‘kaka’ of the house. He added both the brothers, who were members of the police force, used to ask their mother for her blessing before leaving the house.

Mustafa said the brothers had the easiest of relationships as laughter and jokes were the order of the day at their residence. “Nobody knew five brothers would become three overnight.”

Looking back to happier times, Mustafa recalled a time when Ali Raza wore a new shirt that Murtaza had bought for himself. “Ali Raza tried to trick Murtaza into thinking that he would never see that shirt again, but the latter laughed it off.”



He said the funeral prayers of the martyred were offered at Pir Panj graveyard and senior police officials were in attendance.

Nazeer Hussain, the father of the deceased and elder brother of Constable Muhammad Sajjad, was proud of the sacrifices made by his sons. He prayed that God show mercy to his family and the country.

Ali, a close friend of the martyred constable, recalls that Ali Raza took him to the doctor on Sunday to get him examined as he was suffering from fever. “Little did I know he would be gone just a day later.”

At least nine police officials were killed in the vegetable market blast where the anti-encroachment operations were being carried  out by LDA and the Municipal Corporation.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2017.