The real ‘shaheeds’

Very little is done to highlight the valuable services of these martyrs and far less to compensate their families.

They were not just officials of the bomb disposal squad (BDS) but saviours that protected hundreds of lives, almost daily. The December 16 attack in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which targeted three bomb defusing experts and their driver, reveals once again that militants have the capacity to strike at will, at least, on the outskirts of Peshawar, an area which has been labelled as the constituency of death, keeping in view the large number of security officials that have been targeted.

The worth of such courageous men is now mostly highlighted after they are no more, however, few realise how tough the job is and only a handful know how these men make their ends meet. While both the federal and provincial governments find it important to condemn such incidents, little is done to highlight the valuable services of these martyrs and far less to compensate their families.

But what astonishes is that while the government functionaries boast about technological advancements to combat terrorism, these officials from the bomb disposal squad were travelling in a vehicle without jammers on a route where the police are frequently targeted. What happened to those robots? The statements by senior police officials that the target was not the BDS but possibly polio eradication teams raises further doubts — are we plunging into a state of denial after losing so many people?

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police have a total of 15 bomb defusing experts; Hukum Khan was killed last year, and his batch mate Abdul Haq was killed in the December 16 incident. While no square or road will be named either after Hukum Khan or Abdul Haq, the least that our leaders can do is to shape a discourse that praises their invaluable efforts to maintain peace in a region where a day without a killing is an elusive dream. We claim to have a ‘legacy of martyrs’ — why not portray them as heroes since after all these are the real shaheeds.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2013.

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