Valour extraordinaire: The swan song of the unsung

Always with a smile on his face, Sub-Inspector Abdul Haq was a favourite of mediamen.

PESHAWAR:

He was a good guy, our Abdul Haq. A nice fellow, with a shock of marble-white hair and a matching beard to go. He was also supposed to be done defusing bombs, Haq was looking at retirement in April next year. But fate had something else in store for him – a well-placed remote-controlled bomb.

Us journalists always preferred calling Haq for comments or quotes; he was the easiest to access in his squad. Even though false alarms, checking vehicles and defusing explosives across the district of Peshawar on a daily basis took a toll on him – as it does on all bomb disposal squad (BDS) members – Haq greeted everyone with a smile, especially members of the media.

Abdul Haq joined BDU in the 1990s and was one of the most experienced members of the BDS; he was also a batch mate of the late Inspector Hukam Khan. Hukam Khan was killed in 2012 while attempting to defuse an explosive device in Badhaber.

Haq was no stranger to the pains of the job, his hands told the story. He lost the tips of his two fingers. “It was a booby trap – a hand grenade. Its pin was attached with a wire cleverly. When I removed the pin and tried to throw the grenade away, it detonated in my hand,” Haq once narrated over a cup of tea.

“In Punjab if you defuse a hand grenade, you get Rs5,000 as reward. Here, in this city, I have defused bombs – some weighing hundreds of kilogrammes – without even a simple ‘thank you’,” the late BDS senior would say.

He was a resident of Batkhela, Malakand and a father of four children. Haq was probably planning to spend his retirement farming in his native village. Instead, he died a martyr with his comrades-in-arms on this cold Monday morning in Badhaber, an area rife with militancy.

Death might have severed him from earthly ties but he will be remembered by his friends and by the denizens for services rendered for the city.  So thank you Abdul Haq on behalf of Peshawarites for one last time. You were committed to saving lives in life and in death.

Imtiaz

BDS personnel Imtiaz was a resident of Musazai village on the outskirts of Peshawar. Imtiaz had been working with a BDS for the past eight years in one capacity or the other but his career was always marked by trouble.

Kashif Khan

Kashif was a driver at the BDS but was not a driver by profession. He was indeed a police constable. After completing a short course in Lahore on defusing explosives, he was directed, along with 29 others, to report to the BDS. However, his lack of experience led the squad to place him as a chauffeur.

Aminul Haq

Aminul Haq was a resident of Sordher, Swabi and was a head constable in the BDS. He joined the squad seven years ago after his retirement from the Pakistan Army Engineering Corps.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2013.