The aftermath: Suicide blast victims buried in Battagram amid moving scenes

Security was heightened around the city, with reinforcements from the elite force and the FC.

BATTAGRAM:

The seven victims of Monday’s blast were buried in their ancestral graveyards amid moving scenes here on Monday evening.

The police heightened security around the city, with reinforcements from the elite force and the Frontier Constabulary. Additional FC personnel were called in from the newly formed Torghar (Kala Dakka) and Mansehra districts.

The funeral prayers of two police constables, Hazrat Ali Shah and Muhammad Tayab, were first offered at the police lines, which was attended by District Coordination Officer Mussarat Hussain, Battagram District Police Officer Ghulam Hussain, and a number of police and civil administration personnel.

Later, their bodies were taken to their respective villages on the outskirts of the town, where the two were buried. The three women -- Safia, Hakeema Jan -- and a minor girl who fell victim to the terrorist attack were laid to rest in Kandar village amid moving scenes.

A total of eight people including two women, an infant were killed and 26 were wounded on Monday morning, when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up barely 90 metres from the Wapda office on Shamlai link road where the Pakistan Muslim League-Q provincial chief and federal minister Amir Muqam was to address a public meeting, police sources said. However Hazrat Ali Shah, a traffic police constable deployed at the outer cordon of the venue, stopped the briskly moving suicide bomber, who detonated the explosive shortly after warning him to stay away from him.

Meanwhile, District Headquarter Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Mehboobur Rehman told The Express Tribune that except for 14 people who have sustained serious injuries, the others have been discharged.

He said that eight of the 14 injured including four police officials and two women, have been referred to Ayub Medical Complex (AMC), Abbottabad. However, he said that those referred to AMC are out of danger. Those referred to AMC are: Naseem Jan, who lost her eight-month-old daughter, Asma, in the blast, Sana Jan, Sub-Inspector Abad Khan, ASI Arshad Khan, Constable Abdul Hakeem, Constable Abdullah, Engineer Gohar Muhammad, Rozam Khan and Nooruddin.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2011.