LAHORE - Subordinates and batch-mates burst into tears as coffins of seven martyred officers were brought, in a row, for funeral prayers at the Elite police training center on Lahore’s Badian road yesterday.
Hundreds of people were attending the prayers to pay respects to the sons of the soil, who were among the 13 people killed in a suicide attack on Monday in Lahore that saddened the whole nation.
The bomber had exploded his suicide jacket close to a group of policemen on The Mall, city‘s leading artery housing key government installations, business centers, and shopping malls.
Lahore’s chief traffic officer, DIG Syed Ahmed Mobeen and Acting DIG (Operations) Zahid Akram Gondal were among the police officers who laid their lives in the line of duty.
At the funeral, senior politicians, police officials and friends and relatives of the victims were standing in queues as a group of smart cops presented traditional gun-salute to the martyred cops.
Some of the colleagues of the martyred officers were weeping profusely, others struggling to control their emotions while consoling and comforting each other. Until Monday evening, they could not even imagine that they would be meeting like this at the prayers ground next morning.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is said to have been a close friend of DIG Capt (r) Mobeen, was in tears, and so was inspector general of police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera. Some senior military officers present there also failed to control their emotions. They offered funeral prayers and comforted the relatives of the victims.
Following the funeral prayers, the bodies were taken for burial in local graveyards amid massive security arrangements. Police commandoes were seen escorting the convoy of vehicles including ambulances.
Besides those killed, over 100 people were wounded in the deadly assault on a protest demonstration of pharmacists against the new drug sale laws in front of the Punjab Assembly. The suicide bomber struck when the police officers were holding negotiations with the protesters to get the blocked road cleared.
“DIG Syed Ahmed Mobeen and Acting DIG Zahid Akram Gondal were buried in police uniforms,” a police spokesman told The Nation. “They are heroes of the police department. They will live in the hearts of police force forever.”
Syed Hammad Raza, who worked as public relations officer with DIG Mobeen, said that the city traffic police department and its facilitation centres almost remained closed on Tuesday to mourn the death of the chief, who was very kind to his subordinates.
Mobeen had distributed welfare funds worth millions of rupees among the deserving policemen days after he took the charge of his new assignment in November.
“He used to admonish his staff over mistakes but he rarely awarded punishments to his subordinates. He was the captain in the true sense of the word,” Hammad said sobbingly.
Thousands of Lahore policemen remained on-guard across the provincial metropolis amid security threats as traffic officers were standing at duty-points to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic on the city roads. The police patrol was intensified in the town amid VVIP movement as police equipped with assault rifles stood guard on various routes. Gun-mounted police vehicles were also continuously on patrol.
Gloom prevailed at Lahore’s almost over 100 police stations. Most of the cops at their stations sat highly depressed, showing little interest in their routine work. Special prayers were also held for the martyred officers at all the police stations in city.
“We are performing our duty with broken hearts. [But] the terrorist, the enemy of this land, can’t deter our resolve and commitment with the uniform we are wearing. The loss we suffered last night is however irreparable,” said police officer Sajid Noor, who works as a station house officer in Lahore.
Police constable Farooq said that Tuesday was a sad day as far as their day-to-day working was concerned.
“We miss our officers. Most of the (police) force remained busy on law and order duties throughout the day. When the cops came back to barracks in the evening, they met their colleagues and they kept discussing the sacrifices of their friends and officers,” said Farooq, who works at the Qila Gujjar Singh police station as clerk.
Besides the aforesaid two officers, the policemen who lost their lives in Monday’s bombing included DIG Mobeen’s telephone operator ASI Muhammad Amin, and bodyguards Muhammad Aslam and Ifran Mahmood. Constable Nadeem Kamyana and Muhammad Azmat Ali were also among the martyred.
Hundreds of policemen have lost their lives in recent years while fighting terrorists in a relatively peaceful Punjab province. The provincial police also killed hundreds of terrorists and their accomplices during many successful security operations.
The battle is on, as stated by the provincial police chief on Monday night. “We will chase the terrorists. We will fight and win this war,” IGP Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera vowed as he reached a hospital to inquire after his men a few hours after Monday’s blast.
(The Nation)
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