The heart-wrenching screams that moved all

PESHAWAR: “Papa Utho Na, Please, Utho Na” (Papa, get up, please get up). These were the words repeatedly uttered by three little girls while shaking the body of Farhan Ali Bangash who died in the suicide attack Friday on a mosque inside an imambargah in Hayatabad.
As an ambulance bringing the body of Farhan Bangash, 35, pulled up in a narrow street in Hayatabad, his three daughters rushed towards it. When the body on a stretcher was being taken off, they screamed so heart wrenchingly that hardly anyone there could control their emotions.
“Papa Meray Sar Mein Ab Dard Bhi Nahi Ho Raha, Please Ab Tu Utho Na (Papa, I am not feeling headache anymore, now please get up),” uttered one of the daughters of Farhan Bangash. It made everyone cry.
Parvez Khan, a neighbor, told The News that it was very difficult for them to hold back their emotions. “The screams of the children shook me,” he said and added, “How unfortunate this city is. You will not hear any good news in Peshawar anymore.”
Farhan Bangash, 35, was one of the 20 people who died in the attack. The attack resulted in injuries to more than 60. He was elder brother of Imran Ali Bangash, lecturer at Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Peshawar. His cousin Naveed Bangash also died in the attack.
Waqar Bangash, the relative of a deceased, criticised the federal and provincial governments for failing to protect the people. The prime minister, chief minister and Imran Khan should resign, he demanded in an aggressive tone outside the hospital.“I lost my brother and they will issue mere statements,” he said while breaking down.
The injured and the dead were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex where hundreds of people including women were seen searching their loved ones. Moving scenes were witnessed in the hospital where people were crying after receiving the bodies of their relatives.
A huge rush of people was seen inside the Accident and Emergency Department of the hospital which made the movement difficult. A number of nurses and doctors were seen requesting the people to give them space so that they could reach the injured and treat them.
One after another ambulances of government and humanitarian organizations, besides private vehicles, carrying the victims were entering the hospital where a large number of police and volunteers of Al-Khidmat stood alert.
Taj Ali, an injured, told The News that they were about to finish the Friday prayers when they heard a few loud sounds that panicked the worshippers in the mosque. “Immediately after the blasts, the firing started and I heard a deafening sound. I do not know what happened to me then,” he stated.
Peshawar has been bearing the brunt of militancy and terrorism for more than a decade. Less than two months ago the city witnessed the worst kind of terror attack that resulted in killing of 146 persons, mostly schoolchildren at the Army Public School and College.
Ali, 12, was seen crying while seeing his injured brother Muhammad Mehdi, a student of Institute of Management Sciences. Mehdi was hit by shrapnel on his
left hand and was lying in the orthopedic ward of the hospital.
Just then, one saw a woman worriedly entering the surgical ward of the hospital searching for her loved ones. She saw a young man lying on a bed and hugged him and kissed his hands and forehead. The injured was her brother and she was relieved that he had suffered minor injuries in the attack.