THE hour-long journey to Quetta’s neighbouring district Mastung brought back fond memories of carefree school holidays spent when my maternal uncle was a tehsildar there some 15 years ago. The Mastung of my childhood was serene. Historically, the valley has been a liberal place, where the majority, Baloch, would live in harmony with people of other religions and ethnic minorities. To this day, it boasts a sizeable Hindu and Christian population residing in the heart of the city.

Situated at a distance of 54km southeast of Quetta, Mastung was once considered a mecca of progressive Baloch politics, literature, political movements and journalism. Sitting back in the minibus, I recalled the famous literary figures, politicians, and intellectuals who hailed from this area. Even if some of them didn’t hail from Mastung, their activities would most certainly be centred there. It is said that when Pakhtun nationalist Abdul Samad Khan was arrested in Quetta, the people of Mastung went to Quetta to bail him out.

My reminiscence was interrupted by a passenger’s loud conversation over the phone. Dressed in weathered clothes, a Balochi cap and chador, the passenger relayed in broken Urdu that he was on his way to a condolence reference for a relative killed in Friday’s bomb attack. As the minibus pulled into Mastung, I realised how much it has changed since I used to visit it in my school days. In front of a shop on Old Kalat Road, Shabir Ahmad, a local, says: “The whole of Mastung city is in mourning today, and a shutter-down strike is also being observed. In the bomb attack on Friday, two of my friends were injured but one of them succumbed to injuries, and we buried him yesterday. He had gone to the area to meet a friend when the bomb went off.”

He says that when he heard what happened, he rushed to the Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Memorial Hospital, a semi-government hospital, where most of those injured in the attack were taken to. Those who were in a critical condition were referred to Quetta. “But my friend died,” he says.

Of Mastung’s two large hospitals, the District Headquarters Hospital is government-run, while the Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Memorial Hospital is a semi-government enterprise. Several residents in the area were unsure why the injured had been taken to the semi-government hospital rather than the DHQ Hospital, and surmised that perhaps it was because paramedics at the DHQ Hospital were holding a protest that day.

Attah Ullah Baloch, a local reporter, dismisses the reservations. “Actually, Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Memorial Hospital is nearer than the DHQ Hospital. That is why the injured were taken there.”

According to Mr Baloch, of the people slain in the attack, 18 hailed from Mastung, four from Quetta, one from Kalat, one from Surab, one from Khaliqabad, and a staff officer of Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri who was from Islamabad.

In the Killi Ghazgi area of Mastung, around 200 people sat in a tent in solemn silence at the house of elderly Mir Mohammad Hayat Mullazai. His son Tanveer Mullazai had also died in the incident. Although his son did not belong to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, he was present at the wrong place at the wrong time that day.

The Mullazai tribe is a powerful one and the house in mourning was surrounded by vehicles of influential people from Mastung and neighbouring districts, who had come to offer their condolences. The provincial leader of the National Party, MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai, was also present. Everyone was silent. After saying prayers for the departed soul, the elder Mullazai says to me: “My son was young, he was innocent...My son was not even politically [affiliated], his only crime was to be present near the area where the bomb went off.”

He went back to being silent after saying this and I did not ask any more questions. One of the slain boy’s friends, however, told me, “What I know is that he was a well-behaved boy, and he would rarely go out. He was also a good snooker player.”

I then headed to the Aisha Siddiqa Madressah for Women, which is where the explosion had taken place as Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was exiting the premises after presenting graduation certificates to the students there. Several vehicles, including the one belonging to Maulana Haideri, motorcycles, other items in various stages of damage were scattered around. White-bearded Maulana Abdul Salam, who I am told is the head of the seminary, is sitting with the Balochistan government’s former spokesman Jan Buledi. He says that he lost three members of his family, including his son. Pointing toward others sitting in the hall of the seminary, he says they, too, lost their loved ones. Leaving the scattered grounds of Ghulam Prinz village along with Jan Buledi, we sat down for a meal at a roadside eatery situated on the Quetta-Karachi Road in Mastung town.

“As for the attack on Maulana Ghafoor Haideri, it is a complete security lapse. This begs the question of why he was not provided a bombproof vehicle even though he is the deputy chairman of the senate and an influential leader of a political party. I think this is also because of the wrong attitude of Balochistan’s bureaucracy...they are least concerned about politicians’ [safety],” says Mr Buledi.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017