Aitzaz Hassan’s death anniversary

Family asks govt to honour commitments

By Our correspondent

HANGU: The family of Aitzaz Hassan, a grade-9 student who had foiled a suicide attack on his school a few years back and embraced martyrdom, on Saturday urged the federal and provincial governments to honour the commitments it had made with the heirs as the fourth death anniversary of the hero student passed unnoticed.

No function was organised at the federal or provincial level to remember the young student who sacrificed his life and prevented a suicide bomber from carrying out the attack on his school in his village, Ibrahimzai, in Hangu district on January 6, 2014.

The family of the martyred student arranged a simple function to mark the death anniversary of Aitzaz Hassan.

Mujahid Ali Bangash, father of Aitzaz, lamented that his son rendered great sacrifice and saved lives of other 400 students but neither the federal nor the provincial government bothered to organsie any event to remember his son. He said that he did not invite any federal or provincial government officials or representative to the ceremony as from his previous experience he knew that none would participate in the event.

Mujahid Ali Bangash said the family had organsied an event on the previous death anniversary of his son and invited federal and provincial government’s representatives but all the invitees skipped the ceremony.

“The rulers forget our heroes and their families after some time and did not honour the pledges made after such incidents,” he regretted.

He said the federal and provincial governments had made pledges with the family, but none was honoured. He said the government had announced to name the Government High School in Ibrahimzai village after Aitzaz Hassan but the decision could not be implemented even after the passage of four years.

The father of the slain student said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had pledged to construct a stadium and a degree college, name Kohat-Hangu road and a school after Aitzaz but none of the commitments were honoured.

The family asked the government to declare January 6 as Aitzan Hassan day and honour the commitments it had made with the family.

The hero student had grabbed a suicide attacker and prevented him from entering and staging an attack on his school on January 6, 2014. The suicide bomber had then blown himself-up at the gate of the school.

The government had later decorated Aitzaz Hassan with the gallantry award, Tamgha-e-Shujaat. Other awards were also conferred on him for his bravery. An Urdu movie has also been made on his life.