The raw courage demonstrated by a young female police officer frustrated the terrorist attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi last week. If actualized, it would have put Pakistan's highest socio-economic and strategic stake at serious risk. That lady police officer was Suhai Aziz Talpur, the world saw leading the anti-terrorism operation with a gun in her right hand. Accepted, the country's policemen, of all ranks, have fought terrorists and often paid with blood, but the readiness on the part of this officer to confront the danger stands out as a telling example of answering the call of duty. She was on the road on way to her work, and the moment she learnt of the attack she didn't think twice and in no time was she there on the scene. In all probability, but for her timely arrival at the scene and handling of the operation, the terrorists would have entered the consulate and done what they were apparently mandated to do by their masters. The criticality of the failed assault could be gauged from the fact that the terrorists still declared it as their success! Disruption of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the enemies' biggest challenge, and the task to do that is assigned to the Baloch Liberation Army. The BLA was involved in some earlier attacks on the Chinese working on the project also, but nothing like taking the Chinese consulate staff hostage for the world to see and thus malign China. Rightly then the Suhai-led anti-terrorism operation has received generous kudos from all over the world, but particularly from China. Not only have the Chinese people admired her courage, they have also compared her with their country's most popular cinematic personality. She deserves recognition at home too. It is therefore heartening to note that the Sindh police chief has recommended the Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal for her, the first for a woman in the force.
There is no doubt about the rich pouring of praise for Suhai's heroics. But as it happens it would be incumbent on the authorities to find out as to what stood in her way to this position, and given her example why not concede ground to the female gender both in public and private professional careers. Her people were opposed to even sending her to the school but her father stood the ground and she went on to become a chartered accountant, and then recruited to the police service as she successfully competed for the Central Superior Services examinations. There appears to be a mindset in Islamic world that women are lesser than men, and that's why the opportunity scale is heavily tilted in favour of menfolk. It is argued by some historians that women were badly treated during the Ottoman rule and it became one of the key reasons behind the demise of the Ottoman Empire, which was in existence for 600 years.
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