recollecting memories of May 28, 2010. A thread:
Today marks 10 years of an incident we can barely speak of in our house without teary eyes and a heavy heart. An incident that would forever change our lives.
Today marks 10 years of an incident we can barely speak of in our house without teary eyes and a heavy heart. An incident that would forever change our lives.
10 years ago, seems like yesterday, was the horrific day when 94 people were shot and killed because of their faith in Lahore, Pakistan. I remember being woken up by my mom whose voice was trembling as she was giving me the news of two of Ahmadi mosques being attacked in Lahore.
The first thought in my mind of course was if my husband @AzharBharwana (who was in the process of being sponsored to Canada) was ok. The first thing I did was call him. My heart skipped a beat with every bell that rang and went unanswered
and finally after what felt like forever, he picked up. Sighs of relief escaped from lips with his “Asalamoalikem”. “Are you ok?” I said. “Yes I am fine, but my dad and brother are still at the other mosque and now I am headed there” he said as he hung up.
After a long wait, he calls me back and says his brother is ok to which I say “Alhamdolilah” and then he goes quiet. Taking a moment for what he was about to say he says, “per Abu ko shaheed ker dia hai” (but they martyred my dad).
I did not know what to say. What DO you say to someone who gives you the news of their own dad being martyred this way?I was taken aback. Floods of memories of a similar incident that had happened in my life were now infront of my eyes as I heard the sobs and cries of my husband.
14 years ago(May 7th, 2006) my dear uncle in Sanghar Pakistan was murdered in front of the house I grew up in. A dad of 3 young children, a doctor and a caretaker of his old aged father was shot and left to die. So the news of the Lahore attacks were that much harder to process.
I called my bro-in-law @AnsarBharwana next & we both just cried the whole phone call without saying a word & I asked him to pass the phone to his mom, my mother in law. I expected her to do the same & not be able to speak a word but this brave woman's faith shocked me to my core
I remember trying to say how sorry I was for her husbands death and to this day I remember/admire her reply. This woman just found out she was widowed and says, “jo Allah ko manzoor, Sajju ke liey dua kero, vo theek ho”(Whatever pleases Allah, please pray for Sajju that he is ok)
Sajjad or Sajju as everyone called him was my husband's cousin, a young man and a father of 2 very small children who was also martyred in the mosque that day but we did not find him till much later.
The aftermath was also horrible. From the hospital runs my husband had to do to identify the bodies of his father and cousin to burying 94 innocent people one by one. We were all in shock and awe. In Canada, we couldn't do much but comfort each other and pray!
Seemed like everyone lost someone that day and everyone comforted each other. I can’t imagine what the people went through who were there to witness everything. Life seemed unreal. Nothing felt normal. We didn’t know how we were going to get past it.
The Ahamdis in Pakistan are not looked after by their government. So no one came to help or even to offer condolences. We were left on our own. But we are a people of faith!
We had Allah and His appointed Caliphate, our beloved Imam Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his helper) who tirelessly called every single family, sent whoever he could to help, spent his days and nights praying, and to this day sends ‘Eidi’ to the martyrs' families.
All his love gave us courage, so much so that after burying his dad in Rabwah, my husband couldn't wait to return to Lahore so he could pray in the exact spot his dad prayed his last Friday prayers.
Every Friday prayer after that had to end with a phone call to our loved ones asking if everything went ok.
That was the new normal now& just as life felt a little normal, 3 months later I got the news that my elder uncle who had left his comfortable life in the US &moved to Pakistan to take care of the family of my younger uncle that was martyred earlier in Sanghar was also martyred
I didn't know how to function anymore. I wanted all my family out of Pakistan and safe! We live such a privileged life in Canada that we forget to appreciate our rights and freedoms to practice our religion.
I am thankful for the life that I have here and my prayers are with all the Ahmadis who live in Pakistan under a government that cannot protect their basic rights. I hope and pray that they soon realize this before more blood is shed and more precious lives are lost!
