Villagers dumbfounded by mosque blast

Villagers of Pishtakhara vow never to be caught off guard again.

PESHAWAR: Pishtakhara Bala is a nondescript village surrounded by fields. Streets are unpaved and dusty and about 10 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital, it is accessible by a small lane from the Peshawar-Bara main road.

Friday’s blast at its mosque, Jamma Masjid Pishtakhara Bala, has woken this village with a jolt though. Now police and Frontier Constabulary personnel guard the entrance of the village.

Five people were killed and more than 24 were injured when the remote-controlled bomb went off as people were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.

One of those who died was 18-year-old Rehmat, who had prayed at another mosque and had come to Jamma Masjid to meet his cricket teammates. They had planned to play a match. Among others who lost their lives were a child, a daily labourer, an Afghan, and a Mohmand tribesman.

The blast created a small crater in the mosque’s red brick floor and the whitewashed walls are blackened with smoke.

Inside the mosque in a corner, children and older citizens are huddled together and speak in low tones. The topic of their discussion is the bomb attack. They are trying to figure out why their mosque was targeted.

“It is a small village and we all know each other well,” remarks Zahidullah, one of the people gathered at the mosque. “We are wondering how it all happened.”

He says that no senior politician, military or police officer belongs to this village of around 3,000. The villagers cannot think of any reason why their mosque was targeted.

If the bomb had gone off during the prayers, a lot more people would have died, he says. Luckily, most people had left the mosque when the bomb went off.

“We would definitely do something to prevent such occurrences from happening again,” he says. They are thinking along the lines of searching people before allowing them to enter the mosque or a village committee to oversee security.

“The attack came when we were asleep; we shall not let it happen again,” he says. “We are not saddened by our losses, but with the desecration of the mosque’s sanctity,” says Abdul Wahid, another villager. He says they have no idea who could be behind the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.