A Contrast in Courage and Spiritual Worth — Young Aitezaz Hassan Died Preventing a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Suicide Bomber from Entering His Pakistani School — Despair and Hope in the Same Incident

© 2014 Peter Free

 

10 January 2014

 

Despair

 

From Reuters:

 

 

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi [“a Sunni Muslim sectarian group”] believe Shia, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's 180 million people, are heretics, who should be killed.

 

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi . . . claimed responsibility for the attack. The school is in Hangu, a predominantly Shia Muslim area.

 

© 2014 Reuters, Pakistan teen dies stopping suicide bomber, Al Jazeera English (10 January 2014) (extracts)

 

Heretics, who should be killed — the heartlessness of that phrase describes the core of the human condition.  If they ain’t in the clan, kill ‘em.

 

And vote for “me” while you’re doing it:

 

 

The number of suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan rose by more than a third to 46 last year, according to a study released earlier this week by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.

 

The same study said that sectarian attacks were becoming more frequent and more deadly.

 

Many Pakistani politicians maintain ties with sectarian groups in return for support at election time.

 

© 2014 Reuters, Pakistan teen dies stopping suicide bomber, Al Jazeera English (10 January 2014) (extracts)

 

 

Hope

 

From the same article:

 

 

The bomber approached the school with explosives hidden under a school uniform on Monday, but students noticed and started shouting out warnings to stop him.

 

Aitezaz Hassan, 15, tackled the bomber as he tried to enter a government school in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

 

Hassan and the bomber died, but no other students or staff were hurt, police said.

 

© 2014 Reuters, Pakistan teen dies stopping suicide bomber, Al Jazeera English (10 January 2014) (extracts)

 

I am relatively sure that Aitezaz Hassan had a good inkling of what might happen to him, when he threw himself into the bomb-wired attacker.  He went anyway.

 

That is the flip side of our condition — courage and sacrifice in facing the unknown.

 

 

The moral? — A dad’s pride and sense of duty sums it up

 

According to Reuters:

 

 

"Though I lost my sweet son I have no regret for what he has done. He has done a heroic job and I am proud of his bravery," Mujahid Ali, Aitezaz's father, told Reuters news agency.

 

Quiet pride, under these sad circumstances, does not assuage grief.  But it assures us that the departed’s sacrifice was of the highest merit.  In life and death, we do not get to ask for more.

 

Aitezaz Hassan set a high bar.  We salute you.