Should not one begin with the Lakki Marwat suicide attack that eventually killed over 105 and injured at least 50 others on the first day of the New Year? That was how Pakistanis found themselves marking 2010. That suicide attack was described as the worst of such terrorist incidents anywhere in the world, on the New Year. Pakistan gets another dent in its image.
The subject of the country's image is not much discussed, it seems, and quite understandably so. Our image-makers must surely have a very tall order in hand, that is if they are still accepting orders. While every incident of terrorism, be it the one in Karachi on the Ashura evening, or this one that took place on New Year's Day brings anxiety and still more questions, this one that took place in Lakki Marwat has had a particularly depressing impact.
A volley ball match was being played when the suicide attacker struck. The District Police Officer Mohammad Ayub was quoted as saying, "the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the boundary wall of the sports ground. Besides several people from nearby villages, members of a pro-government and anti-Taliban peace committee were also present there, watching the volleyball match, he said".
The sports ground where the volleyball game was being played is in the Shah Hassankhel village of Lakki Marwat. In this particular instance of terrorism, it needs to be underlined that over 105 people have died, including many of the young volleyball players of that village - where according to media reports there has been created a silence amongst the village folk, who must certainly be wondering of what kind of life lies ahead.
Death has hit them in this cruel, hard way, and in the midst of a winter whose bite and severity is well-known. These reports indicated that not much official emergency help had been provided and in fact, it had disappointed the villagers. A thought also goes out to the injured, about fifty persons, and what kind of medical help they received, and what lies ahead for them.
I have in mind the comparison that surfaces of the kind of medicare that is available to those who are targeted by terrorists in Lahore, Islamabad or Karachi. And the huge media attention that is given and the follow-ups and the relief work that takes place. Have the Lakki Marwat villagers got the best help from whatever we can offer? The psychological trauma of the bomb blast destroying their rural peace for as long as one can see into the future. Imagine that scenario.
In fact, I am not sure whether the injured in all such instances get the best treatment possible. What we possibly overlook or underplay is the point that those who are injured, tragically end up being handicapped for life. And that the handicap could become a source of economic disability that could generate financial ruin of an entire family. Does Pakistani society look deeper into all this that is happening in the country.
One concedes that the average Pakistani citizen is today living in a crisis, the trauma of which has many merciless dimensions. From the economic to the psychological to the political and to the terrorist threat that can be real anywhere, on a given day or night, the Pakistani man, woman and child as well, is so vulnerable.
And therefore he lives with this inner fear of what may happen next. A thought goes to the Karachiite who has observed that target killing has surfaced once again, and according to reports on Monday night, as many as 18 people have lost their life in target killings in the last 24 hours. The Federal Interior Minister has taken notice of it and warned of punitive action - regardless of party affiliation
But let me return to Lakki Marwat where because of the high number of people killed in the New Year blast, the local administration decided that the dead had to be buried "collectively" (as one report described it) I do not remember any such "collective burial" that has taken place in the country following death due to terrorism. But then this death toll is unfortunately so high. We are in such agonising times.
Amir Haidar Hoti, Chief Minister of NWFP (the province awaits its new name as decision-makers have not finalised this also, amidst a long list of grim, divisive, pending issues in the country) has said that the prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will soon be visiting the Lakki Marwat people, and that an earlier plan could not materialise due to unfavourable weather. Not the political weather, one is certain.
And the provincial minister of sports and culture, Syed Aquil Shah has promised that a volleyball stadium will be built for the people of that area, along with an academy for the promotion of the game. Evidently volleyball is very popular in that part of Pakistan - and in that blast 20 volleyball players also perished.
Indeed, it is so welcome what sports minister Syed Aquil Shah has said - but one would imagine or hope that the provincial government would also consider building a befitting memorial to the exceptionally high number of men and women who have lost their lives, in what is Pakistan's war against terrorism.
Peshawar is in a better position to appreciate the historic contribution of those who lay down their lives as the country wages a war that is likely to be there in our lives, for the foreseeable future. These will evidently become war memorials of another kind. One cannot just bury them "collectively" and leave the rest to the facelessness of history.
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