Gohar’s daughters Nazma and Sawera with their grandfather Muhammad Ayoub. PHOTO: FAZAL KHALIQ/EXPRESS
The guilt of accidentally shooting his wife must have been short-lived for 26-year-old Gohar Ali, for he was beheaded by the Taliban soon after the incident.
“I loved my father. He used to bring sweets and biscuits for me, take me for walks and kiss me. I miss him,” said eight-year-old Nazma, one of the two daughters of Ali. His other daughter, Sawera, is six years old.
Ali’s father and sole guardian of his daughters, Muhammad Ayoub, lives in Sakhra village of Matta tehsil, once a stronghold of the Taliban. He said his son was ruthlessly killed by the Taliban in 2008 as punishment for accidentally shooting his wife.
According to Ayoub, Ali was cleaning his pistol when it went off and a bullet hit his wife’s leg. “There was a curfew on that day because of a blast in Matta so we could not take her to a hospital. A local medical practitioner treated her, but she succumbed to her injuries.”
Ali’s family paid Rs200,000 to his in-laws upon the Taliban’s orders, but the militants did not spare him.
Ali and his father were abducted and taken to an undisclosed location. One day, the militants dragged Ali out of the room where the two were held captive, after which he never returned. Two days later, Ayoub was released only to find out that his son had been publicly executed.
“When I got back, it was a different house, crowded with people crying and my heart sank. Then someone came running up to me and told me the Taliban had slaughtered Ali,” said the aggrieved father. “I looked up at the sky and it seemed normal. My world, however, was shattered. They slaughtered my only son in front of the whole village.”
An eyewitness said an announcement had been made prior to the beheading. “When all the locals assembled in Sakhra Bazaar, they slit his throat,” he added.
Left without a father and mother, both Nazma and Sawera came under the care of their grandparents. But they have now been admitted in Khpal Kor Foundation, an orphanage at Mingora. The institution has a school with complete boarding facilities and is known for its quality education. More than 500 war-affected children are currently living there.
“I wanted them to receive better education so I brought them here,” explained Muhammad Ayoub as he sat with the two girls.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st, 2013.
COMMENTS (22)
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hundreds of innocent people were beheaded by those barbaric forces, children of those are on the mercy of God. the government must open orphanage and schools for them.
The tragedy in this story is the two little girls. Our hearts go out to them, being orphaned at a very young age, and now having to spent their young lives in an orphanage. The focus of this saga should not be if the father deliberately killed the mother of the girls or not. If he had done that the law of the land should have taken care of that. Who gave Taliban the right to be the Jury and executioner? It is appalling to see them brutally behead this father of two in Public Square. These bunches of terrorists have no other agenda, but to terrorize the general public and enforce their evil ways. If left unchecked, their brutality can overtake the whole region again, and that will never happen. We commend the Pakistan security forces that, in the most difficult of situations, are constantly battling these goons. We have no doubts this common enemy will be eliminated soon, and the region will see peace, where little girls will not lose their fathers to the brutalities of the heartless terrorists.
Abdul Quddus
@kumail: Really honestly?? Are you asking why the guy had a gun?
the entire episode is questionable...why in the first place did he have a gun? secondly, if they did kill him for killing his wife, well then....justice was done, Taliban style.....
When a U.S. Drone kills innocent and violate our airspace we scream "Pakistan's sovereignty is being tampered”. But when Taliban take over as the government and become the judge, jury and executioner then it is ok! It boggles my mind to see the mindset of the masses. Unless this mindset changes. Taliban is not going to go away. This cancer will grow unless the mindset changes and the masses see this group of terrorists as the enemy of humanity and a threat to the state. And that they are! Pakistan is a country with laws and a judiciary let the law of the land take care of the crimes that are committed not a bunch of lawbreakers who kill without any remorse. People who are supporting these vicious killers should think again… Do you really want to hand over the country to this illiterate bunch?
I wanted to draw your attention to Kpal Kor project. It is such a wonderful school facility and I hope many of these school spring in the area. I think everyone should contribute towards it and they need help. There were 800 applications for schooling this year from orphans but only 10 could be accommodated. The whole story breaks my heart but at the same time we need to do whats best for the people in general and kids education in particular because only education can solve problems around us.
Taliban's actions do not have one bit of Islam in them. They are neither the representatives nor the guardians of Islam. Do not want to enter conspiracy theories, but we all know how they were originated, and whose agenda they are actually following.
@manto: Taliban sympathisers will never change even if they kill your family.
@Green Tiger
Watch out, another apologist here...
So sad. What beautiful girls.
So you can kill someone and then walk away free by just paying Rs 200,000? Even if he hadn't been killed by the Taliban, this guy should have been executed by Pak authorities... Accidentally my foot!
Cant stop the tears. Very sad for little girls. May Allah bless them both with in life. Taliban terrorists and religious pundits, supporting them have ruined this country.
Where is police? Where are the courts? How can someone accidentally shoot his wife & pay money and get away. I think Taliban did the right thing. It delivered justice to the woman's family while the courts & police didn't.
I doubt he killed his wife by accident. Probably she was murdered for not serving tea on time or something. Maybe the Taliban did the right thing.
"The Taliban are the expression of a modern disease, symptoms of a social cancer which shall destroy Muslim societies if its growth is not arrested and the disease is not eliminated. It is prone spreading, and the Taliban will be the most deadly communicators of cancer if they remain so organically linked to Pakistan."
-- Iqbal Ahmed Daily Dawn karachi. 1998.I wonder if publishing pictures of these people puts them at risk.
@gp65: Because you have too much time on your hands and nothing better to do than trolling ET
And then there are people out there who support the Taliban and their ways. Ridiculous.
Islam does not prescribe this type of punishment. It was practiced in pre-Islamic times (Jahilliya) and even now is used to terrorize opponents by carrying it out. Salams
The man accidentally shot his wife? Why do I not believe it. His crime was supposedly forgiven by a payment of 200,000 rupees to the bride's parents - why does that sound atrocious? Then he was punished by beheading by TTP? Why am I not shocked?
If the events are same as depicted in this rerport, then Taliban can only be termed as nuts. Despite paying Diyya he was killed. To the best of my knowledge of sharia law, this is mere brutality.
Taliban sympathizer need to ask people like Ali whether to talk to these monsters or not. You cannot have peace deal with stone age barbarians They are religiously indoctrinated. They deserve brutal death. They deserve drones. They deserve painful death.