As a journalist, I have a habit of bed tea with news paper. My favourite section is the International News. There is hardly a single day that goes by where I fail to find an article reflecting the sorry state of affairs of our neighbour- “The illegitimate product of partition of 1947“. Today was no different. The breaking news on the news paper read another terrorist commander was killed in an attack in Khyber Paktunkhwa.
The terrorists, whose fate was sealed, were Syed Noor Shalobar, Syed Khalid Raza, Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri and Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam. While Syed Noor Shalobar a domicile of Pakistan was killed yesterday in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area, Bashir Ahmad Peer and Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger were terrorists from Kashmir Valley.
In a span of 30, days Pakistan failed to protect four hardcore so called jihadi fighting for the so called independence of the Valley. This shows the crumbling state of affairs of the Pakistani Government. Once a safe haven for all dreaded terrorists is not so safe anymore. I wonder how terrorists like Syed Sallauddin who masterminded some gruesome terror attacks in India and give fiery speeches at the slain terrorist Imtiyaz Alam’s Namaz e Janaza sleep peacefully at night.
A few days back, when the news of the slain terrorist Imtiyaz having been gun down broke in India, I was rushed to the original place of residence of this terrorist in the valley by my news editor. When I was covering the background of the story I happened to meet a local Mr Zahoor Bhat (name changed). Mr Bhat is a school teacher and teaches students at the nearby high school. When I enquired about the incident he looked astonished to see me come all the way from the Capital to this remote location just to cover a story on nobody. He said why do you need to cover a story on a terrorist? Why not a story on this school? Why not a story relating to tourism? But the last question of this furious man caught my attention. He asked what is Jihad? To which I had no answer. I was even more shocked to hear his reply. He replied Jihad means fight. I want each and every student from my school to do Jihad. Jihad against poverty. Jihad against illiteracy. Jihad to give better lifestyle for their parents. Jihad to remove hunger. And finally Jihad to work for betterment of humanity.
I was speechless for a moment. I had never imagined such a humble individual coming from the rural part of our country to have such noble and inspirational thoughts. It was at that moment I decided to drop the idea of following up an article on the black sheep of valley and decided to write on the teacher
