QUETTA, Pakistan: On the evening of Aug. 14 last year, Siraj Ahmed, a 40-year-old train supervisor in the southwestern city of Quetta, returned home from work and told his children how beautifully the local railway station had been decorated with colorful lights and a narrow-gauge steam locomotive for families to visit as part of Pakistan’s Independence Day festivities.
Out of excitement, his children — Ajwa, 11, Haris, 9, and Khizar, 6 — begged him to take them to see the lights and decor.
Ahmed agreed, but the family’s outing turned into tragedy as they were caught in a hand grenade attack that killed Ahmed and injured all three children.
“We were sitting and enjoying the atmosphere. My sister, Ajwa, and brother, Khizar, had gone ahead to see the lit up engine when the blast hit us,” Haris told Arab News this month ahead of the Pakistan’s 79th Independence Day on Aug. 14.
“We three siblings were injured, and we didn’t even know that our father had died. My father was lying down and he was bleeding heavily and I was bleeding too. My sister and younger brother received injuries on their legs.”
