Mourning Prevails In KP: Attack On Mosque Leaves Behind Painful Stories Of Victims

News Desk

Peshawar: There are many heart-breaking tales of the victims who perished in the terrible suicide bombing at Malik Saad Shaheed police lines’ mosque, which killed over 101 persons, predominantly officers, and injured 221 others. These tales were told before the deceased went to their everlasting home.

Peshawar Police Constable Daud Khan was very concerned for the welfare of his ill mother before he passed away from head and chest wounds in the Rescue 1122 ambulance outside the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in Peshawar on that sad day.

Before embracing Shahadat, Daud Khan repeatedly asked the rescuers “Would I survive, I am the most loving child of my ailing mother and what would she do if I die. When I left home for duty on Monday, my mother asked me to bring medicines for her,” quoting Daud, the rescue worker Taimur Khan, who brought the injured cop to hospital in precarious condition, said.

While offering Zuhar prayer at the mosque’s corner, the martyred policeman and his fellow officers were struck by shrapnel in the head and chest, which proved fatal.

Another heart-wrenching incident included the co-martyrdom of police constables Ibn-e-Ameen and Iftikhar Khan, who had been childhood friends in the village of Ameerabad in the Charsadda area. Iftikhar Khan, who was initially hired by Wapda, then joined the KP police at his friend Ibn-e-request, Ameen’s and so their long friendship journey came to an end with a shared martyrdom at the mosque near the police lines.

Constable Irfan Khan, a Takht Bhai Mardan local who joined the police force in 2008, was also killed in the explosion, and his intention to perform Umrah during the holy month of Ramazan was unfulfilled. He is survived by his widow and two boys, who will be left to grieve his untimely passing.

Peshawar Capital Police Head Constable Sharafat Ali, a resident of the Mardan district’s village Ismail Khel, ccepted “Shahadat” in the explosion and was buried in a graveyard he had set aside for the locals. According to Sharfat’s family, the lack of graveyards was causing problems for the poor, so his father resolved the problem by reserving his valuable land for a cemetery for everyone. However, he was unaware that he would be the first person to be buried there.

On the third day after the explosion, people from all walks of life are visiting the martyrs’ homes to offer ‘Fateha’ for their eternal peace. Grief and sorrow were felt throughout KP, especially in the areas where the majority of the dead were police officers: Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera, and Swabi.