From the city of flowers to the city of funerals
There is not a locality in Peshawar which has not lost someone and as bodies are lowered, the grief and pain lives on
PESHAWAR:
A funeral procession has left from every second street in Peshawar, with mourners stretched as far as the eye can see.
There is not a locality in the city which has not lost someone in yesterday’s dastardly attack on an army-run school which left 141 people, including 132 school children, dead.
Peshawar was a bruised city on Wednesday.
The streets wore a deserted look, with most parts of the city, including business districts and markets, shutdown in mourning.
Echoing with cries, last rites of children who died in the savage attack have been going on since late last night following the grisly attack, which took place at the Army Public School on Warsak Road.
Electricity poles from Khyber Bazaar, Qissa Khawni, Misgaran Bazaar, Chowk Yadgar and Bazaar Kalan to areas of the interior city were festooned with funeral announcements as I walked for funeral prayers of Yasirullah, a student of grade 8, and Zulqurnian, along with hundreds of locals.
The bodies of the two victims were later taken to the Wazir Bagh graveyard for burial.
Overcome with grief, the people who I spoke to broke down in tears, unable to describe the trauma.
Sher Khan, a resident of Wazir Bagh locality, said four children studying in APS from his area were among those killed.
“Two of them were buried last night, while the remaining two were buried today,” Sher said remorsefully.
Funeral prayers in absentia are being offered for victims by various organisations across the city and Quran Khawanis are planned for later in the day by political parties.
Earlier in the day top army brass and top provincial political functionaries gathered to offer funeral prayers in absentia for the victims of the school attacks.
But as prayers are being offered and bodies are being lowered, the grief and pain lives on.
A funeral procession has left from every second street in Peshawar, with mourners stretched as far as the eye can see.
There is not a locality in the city which has not lost someone in yesterday’s dastardly attack on an army-run school which left 141 people, including 132 school children, dead.
Peshawar was a bruised city on Wednesday.
The streets wore a deserted look, with most parts of the city, including business districts and markets, shutdown in mourning.
Echoing with cries, last rites of children who died in the savage attack have been going on since late last night following the grisly attack, which took place at the Army Public School on Warsak Road.
Electricity poles from Khyber Bazaar, Qissa Khawni, Misgaran Bazaar, Chowk Yadgar and Bazaar Kalan to areas of the interior city were festooned with funeral announcements as I walked for funeral prayers of Yasirullah, a student of grade 8, and Zulqurnian, along with hundreds of locals.
The bodies of the two victims were later taken to the Wazir Bagh graveyard for burial.
Overcome with grief, the people who I spoke to broke down in tears, unable to describe the trauma.
Sher Khan, a resident of Wazir Bagh locality, said four children studying in APS from his area were among those killed.
“Two of them were buried last night, while the remaining two were buried today,” Sher said remorsefully.
Funeral prayers in absentia are being offered for victims by various organisations across the city and Quran Khawanis are planned for later in the day by political parties.
Earlier in the day top army brass and top provincial political functionaries gathered to offer funeral prayers in absentia for the victims of the school attacks.
But as prayers are being offered and bodies are being lowered, the grief and pain lives on.