Who killed my father?
Pakistani villagers gather around the dead bodies of their relatives during a protest. -Photo by AFP
PESHAWAR: Worried about the future of his family and tears rolling down his face, Ijaz Afridi, a teenager, was sitting beside the body of his father, Noor Jamal, on Wednesday outside the Governor’s House with no clue as to who killed his father.
Talking to Dawn, he was unable to explain as to what would be the future of his family without his father. “I have no means to shift my other family members to safer place and as such no other option but to keep them in the violence-hit Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency,” he said.
The 16-year-old Ijaz Afridi said that he even did not know who his enemy was and why his father was gunned down inside his own home.
“I was on duty in a local factory at the time of the incident. When I got the information about the killing of
my father and rushed to reach there, the security forces did not allow me to reach my house for many hours,” he said.
Ijaz Afridi said that his father,belonging to Alamgudar village,was an old man and had done nothing wrong. “Unknown armed men camouflaged in uniform of security forces entered our house and killed my father,” he alleged and said that now the future of his family members was uncertain.
Some students of Bara were also sitting beside him. They said that Ijaz Afridi was not the first boy who lost his father, but many other such teenagers had been deprived of their loved ones for no fault of theirs. They said that the entire male members of Mughar Baaz’s family had been killed and only his young daughter escaped in the recent attack.
Majority of the students, they said, had said goodbye to their studies as the schools had been closed for past over three years due to the military operation and they could not even get school leaving certificates to take admission in settled areas.
They said that the students were either selling different items or serving in shops to support their elders and families.
They said that due to closure of Bara bazaar the internally displaced persons had badly suffered financially and many of them were even unable to feed their children.
“Only the well-off people have managed to get their children admitted to the educational institutions in settled areas and the poor are the worst affected,” they said and added that if the operation was not ended immediately they would be deprived of education.
They criticised elected representatives from their area for completely ignoring them in this hour of need. They said that their representatives used to come to them only during elections and then disappeared for years.
Some of the students, who had shifted to Peshawar and other safer places, said that police were teasing them at different checkpoints and asking them to produce computerised national identity cards.
“We are students below the age of 18 and as such we could not have the CNIC,” the students said.
It is indeed sorry state of affairs in the land of pure. Murder is happening in ever cornor of the street, but murderers (who are known to all) are roaming around free!
Very sad. About 80% Pakhtoons are suffering from high pains and worst situations in Pakistan. But the media is also criminally silent on their issues.
The war on terror has become the war on people. Throughout Pakistan people are being killed by militants and security/intel agencies to satisfy their motive/job. People of Kpk are especially hit by the murderous spree from both end. Last week in Baluchistan, People of ethnic Hazara were mercilleslly murdered. As a result, Mr. Raisani Govt. had to go. In KPK, murders by militants and the security/intel agencies is a raoutine. The champion of the Pakhtun rights,while having govt, is un-able to stop the militantsa s well as the security/intell agencies from the continuing bloodshed of the innocent people. People of KPK lack leader. They are desperate like Ijaz Afridi and looking for way out of this hell. But there is no body to help and stop this blooshed of the innocent.While we all say militants are bad killing innocent people. But if the law enforecment agencies are doing the same thing.we are stopped to say anything bad about them or we see the consequeses. Even newspapers like Dawn hesitate to publish our cry. May be it looks illegal to them or against the pemra policy to publish the writing that I have here. But I will request them to publish it. I am also putting my these comments on the facebook for others to see and other social networks as i share the grief of the people of KPK.
What do you expect from the chief of security/Dr. Malik ?
well tribal are fed up of these attrocities.Every one knows who did it .Every one knows who fires mortar shell….i think tribal endurance level has ceased …Years into operation but no results.Every one is ready to question government,but no one dear to question Army.
It was the Pakistani Armed forces!
non violence, time has come to accept this philosphy
What is going on in this country. Pak Army created Strategic Depth in Afghanistan and now the whole nation is sinking into it.
Any answers security High-ups? Or another committee would be set up with orders of IMMEDIATE investigations and bringing the criminals to book?