an excellent piece on the courage and bravery of the police men who gave their lives today.
PESHAWAR: Fazal Raheem, the cop who stopped a suicide bomber at the entrance of the Judicial on Thursday, is no longer in this world, but he has kept his words.
He used to tell the court officials that no bomber could dare to enter the complex as long as he remains at the entrance. Perhaps he had some intuition about what might happen to him.
Same is the case with ASI Khaista Gul, who used to tell the people that security at the entrance is incomplete without Fazal Raheem.
Due to same reason Gul, who was looking after the overall security of the complex, was always reluctant to allow him leave for visiting his home and family.
Gul is also among the 19 people killed in the explosion which devastated the Complex situated on the Khyber Road.
Both of them sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Despite knowing very well the threat related to their duty and that of scores of other cops present there, they never deterred from performing their routine jobs.
Those who frequently visit the Judicial Complex are aware how they used to search the vehicles entering the premises and frisk the hundreds of individuals daily visiting this premises.
‘We often joked with Fazal Raheem to perform his duty properly and he used to tell us that the bomber will first pass through him and then enter the premises,’ said Yousaf Khan, a court official.
He said that Raheem was a simple person known for performing his duty with honesty and dedication and was never scared that he might fell victim to any act of terrorism.
Another hero of the Thursday bombing is Sarwar Khan, an old office assistant of the Peshawar District Bar Association, who was also deputed at the main entrance of the complex on the Khyber Road.
Commonly known as Sarwar Chacha by the lawyers, he was often seen wielding stick and issuing directives to the visitors. He has also vanished in the blast.
‘Sarwar Chacha was a familiar face in the courts. That was the reason that the Bar Association deputed him at the entrance for identifying the lawyers so as to avoid inconvenience to them,’ said Mahmood Alam Advocate.
Witnesses said that the suspected bomber approached the main entrance while boarding a cab and when it was not allowed to enter, he disembarked from it. Fazal Raheem stopped him but he was reluctant to allow body search.
‘Suspecting the intentions of the bomber, he forthwith caught hold of him after which we heard a deafening sound and plume of smoke and dust rising from the entrance,’ said Niaz Mohammad Advocate, whose seat is nearby the entrance.
He also claimed that the bomber was wearing a black waistcoat apparently to hoodwink security officials as normally lawyers are attired in same dress.
Despite security concerns, Peshawar High Court’s Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan visited the Judicial Complex and inspected the place of occurrence.
He was also accompanied by Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, Justice Pir Liaqat and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.
Executive member of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Noor Alam Khan, whose vehicle was carrying marks of splinters from the blast, said that after a loud explosion he saw some of the injured and bodies lying on his car’s bonnet.
There was absolute mayhem as everyone in the complex and outside started running for their lives in sheer panic. The scene was strewn with blood, human flesh, bodies and injured persons.
Journalists performing their routine duty in the courts were mostly safe but one of them, Alamzeb Khan, working with Urdu Daily Pakistan, received injuries. However, he is stated to be in stable condition.
The blast devastated the entrance and makeshift cabins and stalls on the premises of the Judicial Complex housing the courts of accountability, additional district and sessions judges, civil judges and judicial magistrates.
Scores of lawyers reached the spot and helped in shifting the bodies and injured persons to the Lady Reading Hospital.
Large number of them also turned up at the hospital for donating blood. This was the sixth bombing incident in the current month in Peshawar.
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