Quetta: At least nine people were killed and 57 people injured when two suicide bombers attacked a Sunday church service in a Church on 17th December 2017 in Quetta.
Among the dead was also Gulzar Bhatti, the man who lost his life trying to save the lives of hundreds just 7 days before Christmas. Gulzar was an X-ray Technician who worked in Civil Hospital.
Speaking to ARY News, Gulzar Bhatti’s wife, narrated the ordeal.
“I was with him. He used to say I stay outside to see no one tries to enter the church. All people are busy inside in the prayers. So, I told him today is children’s program, do watch it. So he said okay I will come when the function starts. We were at the end of our prayers, he was out side and we heard gunshots. Everybody started running, started hiding in rooms inside the church. He was also outside so I asked him to come in. He said I am coming. Then a terrorist came in front of the door, he pushed him but he fired. Whatever devastation the terrorist had to do he did it outside but he was also wanting to come inside and there were some 300-400 people hiding inside. He pushed my husband and did the blast there only.The bullet hit him near his heart. Then Gulzarhe locked the main gate and came inside. I asked him what happened. He said, I got shot. To save so many people, he gave his own life and became a martyr.He had said to me, after Church, we will go do all shopping for Christmas.”
By the time Gulzar was taken to the hospital, he had passed away leaving behind 7 grieving children who are, however, very proud of their father. His eldest son, remembering him said:
“He was like a friend to me and always said whenever you get a chance to do a good deed, do it. Do not see how the other person is, from which religion or ethnicity.I was seeing him how he was trying so hard that the main gate gets closed. Everybody ran away only he was at it.”
Barbaric killing of people in a country whose founder always propagated peace, unity and religious harmony is indeed an unfortunate sight to bear. Hopefully, one day we can get to witness a Pakistan our Quaid had envisioned.
“We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.” -Quaid-e-Azam, Muhamamd Ali Jinnah.
