And they win — yet again

Chaudhry Aslam died as a valiant soldier. He died a noble man. He died a death of honour.

He died in a brazen attack. He died of ghastly wounds. He died, while trying to rid the natives of the city of Karachi from deadly terrorists thriving in its very midst — as he had tried and succeeded several times before. He died as a valiant soldier. He died a noble man. He died a death of honour. Indeed, his murder is nothing short of an international tragedy, punishable by the highest courts of justice.

It was just a couple of days ago that Chaudhry Aslam’s blood was spilled. I was sitting in bedroom of my house, which is located at Hassan Square in Karachi. Boom went a bomb! All the birds stopped chirping in the trees and those flying suddenly took to a higher altitude. There was pin drop silence on the most bustling square of one of the world’s most dynamic and bustling metropolitans.

After long moments of paralysing silence, all I uttered to my mom who was sitting right beside me was: “A blast has occurred somewhere.” She added, “Yes, somewhere nearby.” The next moment my sister popped in my bedroom and cried, “The windows in the other room were all shaking from the deafening sound that just occurred now!”

Apparently we thought that something happened in the front area of the middle-class locality we live in, but it turned out later it happened in our backyard. A peek out of the window revealed a backyard that was engulfed in flames. A few minutes later, television blared out the news that a brave crime fighter had just sacrificed his life in the line of duty.

In a country where many police officers do not have enough bullets for their weapons, have no training in evidence gathering and do not earn enough to support their families, Aslam was a rare breed.

He often complained about the lack of funding, training and equipment for Pakistan’s police, contributing to conviction rates of less than 10 per cent of those apprehended.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2014.