[IbnAbdullah]

(translation from Urdu)

Monday, August 06, 2007

Report: Sa’id Ahmed ‘Abbasi

Roznama Ummat (Daily Ummat)

‘Erase my memories’

Ghazi’s leg was bleeding, we refused to go out but he asked us to go for the sake of Allah – Umber Salim, student of Jami’ah Hafsah

I tried very much to forget all about this and these scenes should go out of my mind but whenever I close my eyes, the same view comes before me. Ghazi was standing against the books cupboard, his leg was bleeding, some bullets penetrated his leg, he was saying, ‘My daughters, you go out, may Allah protect you, and you yourselves have to see how to go out, now I give you all in the protection of Allah.’ By him was standing the son of Maulana Abdul Aziz, Hassan. Umm Hassan who was along with us expressed her love to him and said, ‘You don’t come out, and you wouldn’t be arrested, so many of your sisters are yet stuck inside, be shaheed while protecting them’, from the next room Ammi Jaan’s (Ghazi’s mother) voices were coming, she was reciting kalimah (shahadah) and was then alive but she was shot on her arm and leg and blood was coming out from there. As soon as we came out of the room’s door, bodies of two brothers were lying there, seeing that I started weeping.

Having said that, Asma Mazhar began to wipe wetness in her eyes with the tissue, though she was completely covered in a burqa but tears could be seen coming out of eyes again and again. Asma who was the student in daurah hadith, spent years in this madrasah and she was very close to Umm Hassan. In the last moments of this operation, when Umm Hassan came out, Asma was also one of those students who came out with her, who is an eye witness to lots of incidents which took place inside and she is still determined to fight her case. She made me wander about in Islamabad so much that I started feeling disappointed but finally I had the chance to have a conversation with her. A local journalist fellow told me about her but didn’t tell that meeting her is as difficult as meeting a federal minister. When first time I talked to her, she didn’t wait to ask: I don’t even know you, how can I see you?
‘Trust me and think of me as a brother, I have also conducted interviews with many girls students.’
‘I have such an experience with the so called brothers that please leave it.’
After this rude answer, I told her the name of my friend who gave me her number so she could believe me’, on that she disconnected the phone saying, ‘Ok, let me see’. I was kind of disappointed then the next day she called from a new number and asked where I would see her.
‘Obviously, I will come to your house’, I replied.
‘No, not at the house, give me the name of another place.’
‘Well, if you like you can come to my hotel.’
‘You were supposed to know that the hotel is not a suitable place, think for sometime and tell me about the place then I will see.’

Her conversation made me dizzy; circumstances have made these girls very mature that they give a ‘tough time’ to any big shot. How would I arrange a place in this city which was like an inn to me. At last I requested an acquaintance to arrange for an interview in his school but he was concerned about the coming of this burqa wearing lady to his modern school in this posh area. When everything was settled I asked Asma to come to school the next day at this time. Before the appointed time I confirmed if she was coming but when I got the school in I-8/4, from my hotel in G-7/6, she called, ‘You definitely would have arrived at school but if it doesn’t bother you please come to this place at G-6’..in other words she called me to Tower from Qayedabad (places in Karachi) and then was asking to come to Clifton and when I was on the way to where she asked me to come I was told she had got the school. Therefore when in this extremely hot weather I came before her with my boiling head, the first question I asked was quite bitter.

‘You people used to say you wouldn’t come out and wanted to get martyred inside then why did you come out in the end, while according to you, hundreds of girls were inside and no one knows about them by now and you left them all behind?’
‘No, this is not as you say, as a matter of fact, we said to baji Umm Hassan that we didn’t want to go out and wanted to get martyred inside, in fact when the operation was started, many girls students went out and many girls students went out that day also when Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested. Because Aapi Jaan said we all would go out, that’s the reason why Maulana sahib had gone out, but when students asked her (Umm Hassaan) why she hadn’t come out by then, she said that was her house, where could she go having left her house, on that 27 of us girls refused to go out that we wouldn’t go out unless you come with us.’

‘So you were 27 girls inside?’
‘I’m talking about Ghazi’s house that we were 27 girls over there, the rest of the girls were inside the madrasah where all the ways to go in were closed, if someone tried to go there he would be shot; we had a girl with us, she was saying she wanted to take a bath and pray salaat, but baaji strictly forbade her that she wouldn’t go to the top. On top had accumulated rain water that’s why she wanted to go to the top in order to take water. Baaji appointed me to keep an eye on her so she couldn’t go to the top, but in the morning she quietly went to the top and then we had lots of difficulties to bring her body down from the top.’

‘While coming out, did you have any contact with the girls who were in the madrasah?’
‘Let me explain with the map, Ghazi sahab’s and Maulana sahab’s house was totally separate from the madrasah and madrasah was at some distance. When the bombing started, no one could go out, if someone tried to go there at night then it was useless as all the ways were blocked. In the first 4 days we could go into the madrasah and have a contact through wireless or mobile, it kept coming to our notice how many students got martyred that day and how many wounded. We though couldn’t do anything for them but kept making duas or praying salaat or nafl.’..