Twin suicide attacks turn religious service into mass mourning. Worshippers and those nearby helped fellow beings to the ambulances and consoled the bereaved souls. PHOTO: INP/ REUTERS
Through the tapered flight of stairs, down the narrow lane of Khalid Town, all were silent. All were still.
A mass of people – all Christians – sat outside their homes. Everyone knew what had happened.
Every third house in the locality had lost a family member – breadwinners, fiancés, wives, children, along with the hope of future sons and daughters for some.
Suleman Masih had lost two sisters and three cousins. People could be seen going into his house afar. Screams, wails and sobs grew louder as one drew nearer.
An ambulance halts abruptly in front of Suleman’s house. Men take out two wooden coffins and place them inside, even though his mother, Najiah Bibi, fights the men carrying her daughters’ bodies.
She wrapped her arms around both the coffins. Her daughters, Zaresh and Samreen, had just passed their intermediate exams from Saddar Convent with flying colours. They were awarded scholarships from All Saints Church, Peshawar, for further studies.
Both the sisters were regular visitors of the church.
But Nazir Shahid wasn’t. A principal at the Mission High School, Peshawar, he rarely went to church as he gave tuitions on Sunday. He did go on Sunday but never came back.
Nazir is among those killed and also a resident of Khalid Town. He not only left thousands of students behind, but also six of family members. He was the sole earner in the household.
A few houses down the lane lived Master Khalid, also a teacher. His wife, Naseem, had asked him to go to the church to finalise preparations for their daughter’s wedding. He, too, fell victim to the calamitous blasts.
In the Lady Reading Hospital’s Doctor Colony, eight-year-old Vikram and seven-year-old Shahzad sat silently, stoically, outside their house. Their parents and two brothers went to church on Sunday morning, while they were asleep.
Several others felt they lost a father. Bota Massih, politically affiliated with Awami National Party, arranged dowry for girls, paid school fees of children, helped families with the rent and resolved disputes in Behramabad.
Bota kept the whole community together. But the elder, the social activist, and the caretaker was no more.
“The blast has destroyed our social fabric,” said Baga Gee, Bota’s close friend. “We have lost our scholars, leaders, teachers – our future,” he uttered the last two words with difficulty, and he couldn’t hold back his tears then.
Attacks on the basis of faith in the past year
September 18, 2012
Eight people were killed, over two dozen injured in twin bomb blasts at Dawoodi Bohra Community in Karachi.
November 3, 2012
The Phandu baba Sufi shrine at Chamkani, near Peshawar, was bombed and partially destroyed. No casualities.
November 24, 2012
The shrine of an 11th century Sufi saint, Ali Mardan Shah, was blown up in the Takhtbhai tehsil of Mardan, K-P.
January 10, 2013
4 bombings in Quetta and Swat killed over a hundred and injured an estimated 270. Area predominantly Shia Muslim. LeJ took responsibility.
February 1, 2013
A suicide blast killed 19 people, wounded 45 in a market targeting Shias outside a mosque in Hangu. The death toll was reported above 20.
February 25, 2013
Three people were killed, 27 others injured in a bomb attack at Sufi shrine, Dargah Ghulam Shah Ghazi, in the village of Maari near Shikarpur.
February 20, 2013
A roadside bomb hit the caravan of Syed Ghulam Hussain Shah, a renowned Barelvi cleric of Qambar Shahdadkot, killing one person and injuring several others.
March 3, 2013
Twin blasts occurred in the Shia-dominated Abbas Town, Karachi, which left at least 40 dead and over 135 injured.
March 9, 2013
At least four people were killed, 27 were injured in a blast during Zuhr prayer inside Jamia Chishtia mosque, near Meena Bazaar in Peshawar
May 3, 2013
At least 13 people were killed in twin bomb attacks that targeted two mosques in north-western Malakand region.
June 20, 2013
A suicide bomber blew himself up at Hussaini Madrassa in Peshawar, killing 15 people and leaving 22 injured.
July 11, 2013
Two people were killed and seven injured when explosives rigged to a motorcycle went off outside a mosque frequented by both Sunni and Shia worshippers in Kohat, K-P
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2013.
COMMENTS (26)
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Do animal do such things ?
No ! They leave high level barbarity to mankind.
I used to be a believer in this country, I used to be in the believer of the good that happens around here (Karachi being the most philanthropic city in the world, SIUT, INDUS Hospital, LRBT, EDHI..). But there comes a point when just 'doing' is not enough. There comes a time where one has to stand up against wrong. I cannot understand how our country's politicians and power elites can stand so idly by and witness such an atrocity, yet still, propose 'negotiations', for they are 'our brothers'.
Let us show the world that we are not our politicians, we are not our terrorists, and we are most certainly not people who would justify such a crime. Let us now, collectively, stand up against the taliban. It is the utmost duty of the civil society to do so in every social forum that we can find. The world needs to know that we are NOT with them.
@Haris Chaudhry; No need for self flagellation. If you read history, there are a lot of other nations, which are guilty of far more excesses.
I wonder who was the IDIOT who suggested the word STAKE HOLDERS for these TTP BEASTS in the much touted Resolution of the last APC. These beasts are no stake holder but murderers & brutal killers
Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are responsible for this!
I have no words. Just goosebumps.
Our state did everything to declare Ahmadis "non-muslims" (don't understand who gave them the right to do so), why not get it right this time and declare these uneducated,illiterate and uncivil bombers non-muslims on a state level.
First I strongly condemn this coward action which is totally against Islamic teaching and secondly I beg Pakistanies not to support same people who do same actions in our country and forget about assuming them as strategic asset.
Its painful to read such accounts of the extreme grief that the people are going through. May god give them strength.
The minorities in this country are like silent letters in a word....function less, mute and just visible but not alive. So they can be obliterated easily. A new amendment is called for as to decide who is fit to live in this country once and for all.
We need to stop these inhuman atrocities on Pakistanis as soon as possible. Our government should fight back these terrorists in order to either transform them into peaceful human beings or imprison them. They should be stopped for commiting these heinous crimes.
I am feeling so depressed!
we all need to wake up .. its high time now!! they were in so much pain and misery just for being pakistanis ...My deepest condonlences with families of all victims..
It is time the Muslim community itself took adequate steps to disown and condemn the terrorists who commit inhuman atrocities in the name of their religion. It is not 'oh-we- don't-approve-such-killings' kind of lip service I am talking about. We know what happens to a Muslim who commits blasphemy or rebels against established Islamic customs. Such terror attacks and killing of innocents are nothing less than blasphemy, if the claim of Islam being a religion of peace is true, and must be treated as such. The Muslim community is inviting the wrath of other communities by not acting seriously enough to curb such fanatics. The argument that it is only a few misguided elements cannot wash any more.
Another arena where you share Afghanistan's fate.
Round up and kill all Talibans and their sympathizers of whatever creed beliefs and group they are , from tribal areas and elsewhere in the country to rid this nation of a menance. Those who brain wash and train young minds to be sucide bombers should hanged until they rot.
@Haris Chaudhry We are the part of this nation. Surprised?
if we cant build a one good hospital or good school the way they does then we have right to killed them.
The Almighty will not change the condition of our people, until we change from within ourselves..(straight from the Book). (People should do more than just asking for Divine Mercy)
As a Muslim, all I can say I am DISGUSTED by these suicide bombers and fanatics and all those that support this evilness. They are a stain on Islam.
The govt. is more important in looting the country and "making a quick rupiah" over doing whats MANDATED by our Islamic principles and morals.
What a shame.
My heart cries for our brothers and sisters. I feel so helpless.
these are extraordinary times that require extraordinary action. Our governments do not have the resolve to stop this destruction that is being blessed by others that strangely remain anonymous.
my advice to all, please stay away from places of public gathering. Please stay indoors. Please manage your own protection. Let our churches, mundirs, mosques remain empty for now...im sure God will understand.
Wake up Pakistan. This is our fight until the last Men, Women and Child. Whoever are these culprits they are none of us. These terrorist have no right to live in our community, and earn from our community while they make sinister plan to destroy our community. Wake up to the violence and stop these selfish act forced on my People. Pakistan has one and one religion only. Pakistaniat. To reach in the fold of Pakistaniat you can take any path that progress our society. May Allah save our people from selfish aggression perpetrated by the enemy of Pakistan, Ameen.
Enough is not enough for our impotent leaders.
This nation is a blot on the face of civilisation ! Devoid of humanity and devoid of reason, this is a nation of doomed people !
We destroy the lives of the weakest among us while talking endlessly about politics and our strategic assets. There really is nothing left to say. I cannot find words to express the pain and the shame of what we have become. May Allah have mercy on us.