By Iqbal Khattak
Sometimes jokes turn serious. Constable Riazuddin Khan was popular among Peshawar’s journalist community for being loyal and dutiful, although such cops are a rare species in the Frontier Police. “Riaz, you know this building is under threat and you must be very watchful to deny suicide bomber of any opportunity to hit us right at our home,” I jokingly said while leaving the club premises some three weeks back.
“Don’t worry, sir jee. The (suicide) bomber will not reach you as long as I guard this building. He has to go over my dead body,” Constable Riazuddin Khan assured me. He proved it on Tuesday December 22 when this brave cop gave his life to stop a barbarous man having wrapped 10 kilograms of explosives and metals around his body from killing as many journalists as could have been possible on that day.
Had this bomber been able to sneak into the Peshawar Press Club building, he would have killed dozens of journalists who had just arrived to attend news conferences that normally start from mid-day. The 10 kilograms of explosives were good enough to raze this two-storey building to the ground. It would have been a massacre had the bomber managed to reach the target.
There is no single eye not tearful and there is no single journalist having not been moved by the bravery this police officer displayed when he sacrificed own life to save the lives of journalists.
Riaz was not seen as simply a cop guarding our press club; he was embraced as a member of the journalist community. Every time his service was transferred to other places, the journalists used their sources in the official machinery to get his positioning reversed and have him brought back.
With Muharram security beef-up, he was transferred again to guard an Imambargah in Peshawar. How could journalists release him this time when such transfers were reversed every time in the past? He returned to the press club duty the same fatal day.
In Southasia, police are notorious for being corrupt, rude, undutiful and poorly-behaved. Until recently, there cannot be many who say they are proud of the police. At least I can say this about Pakistan. It may be the case in many other Southasian countries too. However, the public perception of police is changing in Peshawar. And the change is taking place because these underpaid law-enforces are taking the brunt of terrorist attacks in Pakistan these days. On a number of occasions, the cops have stopped bombers from reaching their targets. On Thursday, the Peshawar police once again foiled the nefarious design of a group of terrorists when they obstructed a bomber from reaching his target, forcing him to blow himself up prematurely.
Such spirit on part of the police also makes society resilient. If a society refuses to surrender to the terrorists who bomb public places, media, worship places and funeral processions it becomes easier to defeat terrorism.
Journalists are scratching their heads trying to reach a conclusion what this attack on the press club in Peshawar symbolized. One group of journalists sitting in one corner of the club lawn believes the terrorists now make no distinction between combatant and non-combatants. The other group of journalists says the terrorists are killing innocent men, women and children in desperation as the territory they were holding is being taken back gradually since operations in Swat, South Waziristan and other places are meeting with success quicker than expected.
But it would be the sacrifices of Riaz and many of his colleagues to render terrorism defeated. Riaz is no longer with use, but each moment he had spent will be remembered by the journalist community. We owe our lives to his sacrifice. Now it is payback time.
SEE ALSO: [RAW FOOTAGE] Peshawar Press Club attack: Journalism under threat for Himal Southasia’s response to the attack and the raw CCTV footage of the suicide bombing.
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