An Untold Story

This short piece of my experience which I am putting together after 3 years; is In Memory of Victims of Sectarian Violence; irrespective of which ever sect they belong too.

Terror made its way back to Karachi, when at approximately 4:15 p.m. a powerful bomb ripped through the main procession of ashura. The blast left 54 people dead and scores injured.

Not many people survive a bomb blast without serious injuries and live to tell the story. I am extremely fortunate to be one of them to survive one by mere 10 to 12 steps. Everybody views it on their TV sets, but hardly ever do you actually realize what goes on inside.

28^th December 2009 a day which has changed my views towards life and which also left a deep mark on my mind, as always I with a group of my friends left for the yearly procession of ashura which is taken out each year on 10^th Muharram from Nishter Park to Hussainia Irania. We reached the procession at around 11 a.m. The procession crossed its traditional routes which has been set since independence of Pakistan; it was when we reached near Light House at around 4:15 p.m. BOOOM!

I heard screams, gun shots, cries and not to forget flying bodies. It was when one of my friends held my hand that I realized what had happened. I with other two friends got up as we were thrown back by the intensity of the explosion & in that smoky atmosphere where body parts and lifeless bodies were lying around with smell of blood and smoke in the air we started to find other people who were with us.

Regrouping and deciding that we should walk back; blood soaked bodies, bodies ripped apart, cries of injured is what I found. I revisited the site after a few days. I have always known that the one who is the creator is superior to one who plans to kill, but this was the first time I had witnessed that. In coming days, I heard many heart breaking stories of people who laid their lives in the tragic incident such as father of newly born lost his life, father and young son losing their lives and the list goes on.

Though the sectarian violence has reached an alarming magnitude, still we can control this menace as a society by measures. First and foremost, effective governance is required. Second, increase in education. Third, funding to the Madressas should be checked. All in all the individual participation is also required. If our policy makers, politicians, public figures and media personalities do not make a concerted effort and practice tolerance, Pakistan will continue to head down an explosive path.

Worldly objects come and go, but existence cannot be replaced; life of a father, life of a son, life of sole bread earner and so many who are the heart beats of their homes. The lives in the name of sectarian hatred have been taken in a meaningless a religious war. A war fought on where guiltless people give the price with their lives. And this is what a so called “defenders of religion” or “Fanatic Mullahs” takes- lives of innocent people. What heaven does he think he’ll go to or his followers will go to by spilling blood of Muslims and above all people who are innocent and unarmed.