THIS is, perhaps, the most difficult time for an aged father to take the blood-stained body of his young son to a hospital. The ill-fated Mohammad Khan, a resident of Adezai, endured this horrible moment on Wednesday when his young son, Israr Ahmad, became victim of an explosion in the area.
As many as 36 other people were perished when a misguided man blew himself up during funeral prayer in Adezai.
Mohammad Khan was waiting outside Mass Trauma and Disaster Unit of Lady Reading Hospital to receive the body of his son. Relatives were trying to console him. “Israr passed secondary school certificate examination last year and was looking for job,” said the grief-stricken man with tears rolling down his face.
Terrorists again struck another soft target. About 500 people were offering funeral prayer of a woman in Adezai village, adjacent to Frontier Region of Peshawar, when according to eyewitnesses a person clad in chuddar rushed towards the gathering and blew himself up.
Like Mohammad Khan, many others lost their family members in the deadly explosion. Trauma centre and emergency ward of the hospital were littered with bodies and wounded persons.
Despite the fact that Adezai area is exposed to such threats, police and government did not make arrangements for the security of people attending the funeral. That was why bomber easily approached his target and a large number of people were killed and injured.People of Adezai are being targeted because they have refused to surrender to militants. They not only opposed militancy, but also raised a lashkar to stop activities of the gun-totting outfits in their area by rendering huge sacrifices.
They blame police force and government for carnage in Adezai, a frontline territory in the war against militancy. They lament that provincial government has withdrawn support from them and left them in the lurch. Relatives of the victims were holding provincial government responsible for the bloody incidents.
Dilawar Khan, chief of Adezai Qaumi Lashkar, has also criticised police. Few days ago he set one week deadline for the provincial government to provide weapons, ammunition and food ration to them otherwise they would not be in position to stop militants from making forays to Adezai area.
The Wednesday's suicide bombing was the sixth attack occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the current year. About 66 people have been killed and more than 100 maimed in the previous attacks. Spike in suicide attacks and series of sabotage acts show that militants have stepped up their activities in the region.
Civilians, women, children, personnel of law enforcement agencies and officials are being targeted. Schools, hospitals, mosques, funeral, shrines of saints and public places including bus stands are also not spared. Teachers and students are killed. Even women and children have not been exempted.
“Pakistan is the only country where all records of violence have been broken,” says a person, who served an international humanitarian organisation. “There are no such atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other troubled regions across the globe where insurgencies are taking place,” he remarked, adding that worst violation of the humanitarian law was taking place in Pakistan.
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