[Opinion] The day BB was killed
Nurmomad
It was a cold night of December. I was on vacations in my native village, located between lofty mountains in the Gilgit – Baltistan region. There was no electricity. The entire village was engulfed in darkness. In the mountains darkness falls very soon.
My pocket buzzed, announcing the arrival of an SMS, while I was going home after roaming around the village with some friends. I could not dare to take my mobile out and read the message. It was too cold.
Once at home I read the message and was shocked. “Benazir Bhutto has been killed in Rawalpindi”, the sender had written.
I read out the message to my father. He could not believe the news. He went into his room and brought out the radio transistor to confirm it. After confirming the news from different radio stations, I could see him getting really tense. He did not eat properly that night. My mother was also shocked. She has probably never voted for the PPP candidates in her entire life but she did not hesitate ever to show her fondness for Benazir Bhutto.
That night I could hear my father tuning different radio stations on the transistor, as if desperately trying to hear some good news about Benazir’s life. It made me wonder about the impact that Bhutto family had left on our far flung areas.
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I have a similar story of the day to share. It was my first visit to Astore on some official work on Dec 27 ,2007. Shortly after we had made it to a private rest house we got the news. BB was among the injured in the blast.From then on and for several more hours into the night , we remained glued to the TV hoping , as you said , for some good news in that snowy night.It didn’t take us long to learn that BB was no more. We were shocked to the core.The spark had lost its warmth and light to the cold. BB was taken to the hospital nearby and sooner rather than later , it was confirmed that she had succumbed to her injuries.
We in Gilgit Baltistan have been introduced to Bhutto family for quite a long time. For one reason or another , the Bhutto family had this public support with them in our part of the world as it did in the rest of Pakistan. People from cross-sections of society loved the family. One may say Bhutto did away with the Mir and Raja system of GB and made a place in the hearts of people.But what did Benazir do to be remembered or to put it more rightly mourned. She had learnt her lessons after being in the Government and living in exile. This time even her opponents confessed that she was different woman this time around:visionary , sincere and a new resolve to uplift a rudderless nation.
Alas , she couldn’t do that.
May her soul rest in peace!