Church blast survivor dies days before birthday

Spent two years in and out hospital for treatment

PESHAWAR: At fifteen minutes to midnight, seven-year-old Zaamir is coiled up in his father’s arms. “Papa, I feel very unwell,” he complains. ”I don’t think I will survive”.  In a matter of moments, he is unconscious and being rushed to the hospital. Two hours later, he breathes his last.

Zaamir Bhatti was part of this world for almost eight years; over two of which were spent battling for his life. He would have celebrated his birthday on December 24. He was critically injured in the twin suicide blasts that ripped through All Saints Church on September 22, 2013.



The boy was buried at a Christian cemetery in Wazir Bagh three days ago.

Zaamir is the 90th person to be killed as a result of the devastating terror attack, but his parents never want to remember the child as a victim. He will forever be etched in their memory as their most loving, only child.

Still haunted 

With the boy’s death, the haunting memories of that ‘red’ September Sunday made an unwanted return.



Zaamir himself was too afraid to return to the church initially, but managed to muster the strength with his father’s help to go back for service a year later. “My son was left paralysed; not just physically but also mentally,” Amir Saloom Bhatti tells The Express Tribune.

His uncle Jerry Samson Bhatti takes over and says Zaamir was just five when the church was bombed. Eight members of their family were injured on that fateful day and their Uncle Riaz Washington was killed. “We didn’t realise that Zaamir was injured. The child walked from the church to the main road in search of help,” he recalls. The family was busy rushing Washington to the hospital, but the pellet that pierced his head proved fatal.

All the while, Zaamir finally found help in the form of rescue workers who took him to the hospital.



Jerry says the boy was discharged after initial treatment as it was just a wound. However, Zaamir was hardly able to walk even after two days. “We took him to the hospital and realised there was a ball bearing that had fractured his femur”.

Zaamir never fully recovered and the ball bearing was never removed from his body, but after three months of regular treatment, which was financed by Rs200,000 of government compensation and the John Joseph Foundation, he was able to get back on his feet. Even after winning this battle, the boy kept complaining of headaches and severe pain in his ears.

Last February, after a detailed medical examination, doctors diagnosed him with brainstem glioma – a cancerous tumour. The medics said his condition could have been brought on by a head injury as he fell when the suicide bomber detonated the explosives. Zaamir was undergoing chemotherapy during his final days.

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As the men of the family recall Zaamir’s final days, the women of the house call and say the boy’s mother has lost consciousness – that too for the third time in three days.

The memory remains

More than two years have passed since the All Saints Church attack, but the wounds run deep. Zaamir’s aunt, Mrs Shakeel, who raised Zaamir like her own, says the boy wanted to join the armed forces. He kept collecting toy guns as he felt safer after suffering through the trauma of the blast.

Over 200 people were injured in one of the biggest terrorist attacks against non-Muslims in Pakistan. Many of those wounded are incapable of walking and lead a bed-ridden life. “We were advised to host a memorial service at home,” says Jerry.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.