A hero falls: Bomb squad veteran felled by terror act

He saved the lives of colleagues by telling them to stay behind while he approached a rigged pile of bricks.

PESHAWAR:

One of the trenchmen on the frontlines of the war on terror, Hukam Khan, died on Friday when a remote-controlled device he was trying to defuse exploded in the Shaikhan area of Badhber on the boundary of Khyber Agency.

For decades Khan, as an inspector and in-charge of the district Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), had protected his compatriots from bomb attacks and kept the populace safe. In a twist of fate, however, Khan himself became a victim of terrorism.

Over the past two months, BDS personnel had successfully defused six other bombs on Frontier Road. But the seventh bomb proved unlucky for the squad.

Lauded for his valiant nature, Khan’s colleague and junior Zarshaid Khan told The Express Tribune that “Khan was my senior and an expert in his field”. “Together, we found and defused complex booby  traps laid out by terrorists to kill innocent civilians.”

A native of Pasani village in Matani, Khan joined the police service in 1978. He served under Major Ghulam Hussain, a retired military officer who had been assigned the task of establishing a bomb disposal squad on a war footing, after the start of the Afghan war.

Khan, among other family members, is survived by two sons, Akram Khan and Atam Khan, one of whom is a member of the BDS.

Shielding his colleagues

On Friday morning, police was informed that militants had planted a bomb in the area under the cover of darkness. Khan was called to locate and defuse the explosive device. Upon reaching the site of the reported sighting, Khan began diligently scouting round for signs of a planted bomb.

An eyewitness, police constable Ijaz Khan told The Express Tribune that “when Khan saw a pile of bricks, he said he had found the bomb and asked all of us to step away for our safety. But before he could defuse the trigger, a huge explosion occurred”

AIG Malik, on hearing the news of the incident, immediately reached the site of the blast and supervised the defusing of three more bombs buried in the ground. However, the police were interrupted in their task as militants attacked the police.

After meeting stiff resistance, the militants escaped towards Khyber Agency without causing further losses.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Malik said that a remote-controlled device targeted Khan. He added that the other three devices too were remote-controlled and were aimed at attacking the police once they had gathered at the site following the first blast.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2012.