Bajaur blast: Young survivor vows to fight for peace

PESHAWAR:

Huzaifa has no words to describe his distress. Lying on a bed at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, he turns pale as he recalls Friday’s horrific suicide blast in Bajaur Agency.

“I could hear distant sounds of my friends screaming and asking me to leave, but I couldn’t move my legs,” said the teary-eyed schoolboy, who was waiting to be picked for school when the blast took place.

As many as 29 people were killed and several others were injured in the deadly attack that targeted a levies checkpoint in a busy market of Khar, the main town in Bajaur Agency.

Huzaifa, who is a student of Bajaur Public School, thinks he is lucky to have come out with skull and leg injuries. However the horrors of the blast continue to haunt him.

When asked for his opinion on the militants targeting innocent people, Huzaifa said he has no idea why civilians are being targeting; “We never spoke a word against them,” he said naively. “But they are absolutely on the wrong direction,” he added.

Unable to speak properly due to shock, he vowed to complete his education and work towards eradicating the menace of terrorism.

Huzaifa’s father, Alhaj Muhammad, who works as a shopkeeper in the main market, has equally been shocked by the blast. Barely able to meet his family’s expenses, he is worried about the cost of his son’s treatment.

“Though I am afraid to send my son back to school, I will not let such incidents wither my dream to see him educated,” said Muhammad.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2012.