Cost of terror: The human face of the Liaquat Bagh tragedy

The family of a slain PPP jiyala is abandoned and suffering.

ISLAMABAD:

Her wrinkled hands hold a white paper book on which her son had written some words that are etched on her heart. On December 27, 2007 when the country lost Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, Mumtaz lost her son Asif Samar too, in that terrorist attack.  All that’s left now is memories and pictures of Samar, displayed on each and every wall of her home.

As if led by mother’s intuition, she would ask Samar repeatedly to not take part in politics but his love for the party and Benazir knew no bounds. When the shooting and blasts happened that day and Mumtaz was informed, she rushed to the hospital. “The words of the doctors are still echoing in my mind when they said, ‘Amma jee, wait outside the room and pray for the recovery of your son.’ Those moments were tough,” she said, describing those never-ending moments between hope and fear.

Only a mother knows what the loss of a son feels like, she said, and burst into tears while narrating the ordeal she has been through for the last five years. “I remember the moment when I saw that the body of my son was lying on the bed with countless wounds and blood oozing out,” she said.

“My son has left me forever. The son for whom I dedicated my entire life, brought him up in extreme poverty, equipped him with education, but terrorists snatched him from me in the blink of an eye,” she said, while wiping her tears with her veil.

No help in sight

The darkest side of this story is that since this incident, no one has bothered to visit Mumtaz Begum. This widow is now living in a two room small house in Dhoke Ratta Amral area of the garrison city with her unemployed son, Faisal Mahmood.

The party for whom Samar sacrificed his life came into power and ruled the country for five years but it could not even succeed to give a low rank job to the unemployed son of the widow. Ironically, the slain Samar used to dream of doing something for Pakistan’s unemployed youth. The family is not demanding anything from the government or the party. But the neglect exhibited by the party leadership is a source of agony.

“None from the party leadership visited us for the last five years to see what kind of miseries we have been through after losing Asif,” she complained.

Asif’s widowed mother lost her elder son last year due to brain hemorrhage. Faisal, the sole bread-winner of the family, is also suffering from a fatal disease. But he is left with no option but to work on a shop as daily wager for their survival.

Faisal once had requested Benazir Income Support Programme’s Chairperson Farzana Raja for a job but to no avail. “She expressed her willingness to give me a job but perhaps she forgot this promise,” he said. He does not want to reveal details related to a plot that was promised to them by the top leadership of the party three years back. They never got that plot.

Yet despite the neglect and lack of support from PPP, the diehard loyalists remain loyal to the party. “We did not get anything from the government but still our support and vote is for the party.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.