Charsadda blast: A notebook, a school bag and countless memories

19 killed in a blast targeting Civil Secretariat employees’ bus.

PESHAWAR: A blood-stained, half-burnt notebook lies on the side of Charsadda road. The notebook pictures a school boy almost stepping over a landmine, imagining himself blown up. The name on the first page says “Ibrar Zaman, class seven”.

A burning bus, a school bag and parents searching for their children has become a common site in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Ibrar along with his brother Mansoor, an eighth grader, are both admitted at the Lady Reading Hospital.

The children are from the 20 people injured in Friday’s explosion that additionally killed 19 people. The blast targeted a bus of Civil Secretariat employees.

A glance through the notebook shows a list of number of techniques for children to avoid becoming victims of terrorism. “Stop! When you find an explosive device, mark the location, move away immediately, inform your elders,” it says.

The notebooks provided by the Pakistan Emergency Mine Risk Education (MRE) campaign have eight such rules to identify a bomb. The list ranges from explaining ‘what colour a bomb might be’ to warning parents to keep their children away from places where an explosion might occur. However, nowhere does it say that a bomb might find you in a bus you might be travelling in one day.

At the hospital, Muhammad Ilyas, searches for his aunt and her daughter who have been reportedly killed. He faints many times as he searches for them, while people standing around him pour water on his face. He then finds Noor Zeba,40 along with her two-year-old daughter at the morgue, their bodies scarred beyond recognition. The infinite tears and as many condolences of “it was Gods will”
are no panacea for Ilyas.

Both mother and daughter had visited Peshawar for treatment. “They took the secretariat bus because it’s convenient,” says Ilyas, who has almost lost consciousness.

As politicians pour into the hospital, a frowning Minister of Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain, contrary to his previous statements of foreign elements being involved in such activities says “Nobody comes from abroad to target innocent people they are very much from this region.”

The irony of the war that has taken its toll on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata is that there are as many solutions to terrorism as listed in Ibrar Zaman’s notebook. The problem, however, is much bigger than just those eight points.

Conflicting statements, promises of monetary compensation, strict security measures and global politics have little solace for Muhammad Ilyas, who sits alone in the corner of the morgue and questions “What was their fault? What is the religion of these terrorists?”