Village of flowers no longer

The quaint village of Sulimankhel descends into chaos as a mosque in the area is bombed by militants.

PESHAWAR: In the Sulimankhel village, where a grenade attack on a mosque killed four and injured 18 others during Isha prayers around 8 pm on Friday night, the atmosphere is sombre and people are grief-struck.

A large number of women in their traditional shuttlecock veils make round from one house to another to condole with the families of those killed and injured in the attack.

To approach this village, you get onto a small road that branches out from Kohat Road near Siphon Police Post, some 10 kilometres south of city.

After travelling for around 10 minutes one enters a maze of unpaved labyrinthine streets that make up this village.

“I was at home when I heard a loud explosion and soon all villagers came out of their homes, gripped with panic, to see what had happened,” Ibne Yamin, a villager told The Express Tribune.

Yamin said that when he entered the mosque, one of his relatives was lying dead outside the gate of the mosque. Inside there was a “sea of people” covered in blood.

He said that they brought cots from nearby houses and shifted the injured to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) with great difficulty, because of the village’s distance from the main road.

Blood stains still soil the marble floor of the mosque, the roof has pock marks of splinters and reddened white caps lie on the floor.

Stained prayer mats and Rihals (wooden Quran holders) have been placed in the lawn of the mosque.

“We knew that these villains are in this village, we should’ve taken more care and closed the gates of the mosque,” an elder of the village said.

“It is a peaceful village and we had not suspected that such an incident could happen here,” Libas Khan, another villager, said.

Khan said that the area where the blast occurred comprises of around 40 houses. “The casualties would have been higher if most of the villagers have not been watching the cricket match,” he added.

Khan also said that usually almost around 50 people come to pray at this mosque, but on Friday night most of the villagers were watching the cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan, therefore, there were fewer people inside.

Villagers are taken aback by the targeting of their mosque, as they had not received threats from any militant groups.

Ajab Khan, a villager who was injured in the blast, told The Express that they were almost finishing their prayers, when they heard gunshots. The blast followed.

“After the blast, there was darkness everywhere,” Khan said.

He said that the attackers were probably on foot, as they had not heard any vehicle in the street before the attack.

A police official requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune that a family from this village was associated with the Bara-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam and some days back, in a police operation, houses belonging to this family were demolished.

He said that there were also some other people in this area that were secretly supporting militants.

Sulimankhel is sometimes referred to as the village of flowers as it and its neighbouring villages are famous for their flower orchards and most of the people here are involved in this business. But now the venom of militancy is poisoning this village situated among the flower fields.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2010.