We hope that the government will appropriately decorate this brave teenager, who sacrificed his life for others.
KARACHI: The heroic sacrifice of schoolboy Aitzaz Hasan from Hangu has hit international media headlines and moved the hearts of many in Pakistan. Hasan died on January 6 in front of the gate of his school, Government High School Ibrahimzai, while trying to block a suicide bomber from entering the premises.
The bomber, who was sent by a terrorist group to kill hundreds of schoolchildren but could not accomplish his plan, instead blew himself up, mortally wounding Hasan. The schoolboy sacrificed his life to save the lives of hundreds of his schoolmates. It is sad and encouraging at the same time to hear such a story about a Pakistani boy. It is sad because he was young and had not yet lived his full life. His mother and father, his sisters and brother will miss him; he was a child who had dreams and plans and talents, which now will never be explored.
But still, his life was not wasted. It was sacrificed for the lives of so many other children, whose dreams and plans can now come true. Therefore, it is encouraging that we have a younger generation which is capable of sacrifice. When we sometimes tend to get resigned to the situation and say that things are so bad in Pakistan that there is no hope, people like Hasan will be there to give us hope for the future of our country. Hasan’s example encourages us to do more to unite the nation instead of dividing along ethnic, sectarian or provincial lines, which is the agenda of Pakistan’s enemies. We hope that the government will appropriately decorate this brave teenager, who sacrificed his life for others. In the case of Malala Yousufzai, the government immediately woke up when its foreign masters took up her case and started using the teenager for reasons of their own propaganda.
Ali Ashraf Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2014.
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