Lahore attack: Slain driver’s family demand recognition

Sisters Saadia and Sumera do not want financial compensation from PCB or the Govt to recover from the loss of their father Zafar Khan.

Sisters Saadia and Sumera do not want financial compensation from Pakistan Cricket Board or the government to recover from the loss of their father Zafar Khan,who was killed in the terror attack aimed at Sri Lankan team on that fateful day in Lahore.

Zafar,who was driving his coach just behind the Sri Lankan team bus,died instantly when one of the terrorist fired directly at him as he tried to take the match refree and umpires to safety.

His colleague Meher Khalil,who was driving the team bus,somehow managed to escape the volley of bullets and took the players to safety and since he has been showered with praise,rewards and hailed as a national hero.

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Sumera and Saadia wonder when their father would also be hailed as a hero. “Our father also lost his life in the line of duty yet no one speaks about him. The sacrifice he made. Everyone talks about the other driver or the police officers killed in the incident but no one is saying our father also died serving the country,” 18-year-old Sumera complained.

The sisters complain is understandable since no one has mentioned him since the terrorist attack even as civil rights groups,NGOs,the Board and Government officials have been visiting the Liberty chowk to pay respects to those killed in the attack.

Meher,who like Zafar worked for a private travel agency which works for the Pakistan Cricket Board,has been rewarded for his bravery and presence of mind.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani has also announced a reward of half a million rupees for him. Saleem Khan,Zafar’s sibling,said his dead brother’s children were most affected after the incident.

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“They are upset no one is recognising the bravery of their father. My brother who was indeed a brave man,” he said. Saleem said Zafar was supposed to finalise the wedding date for his eldest daughter soon after the Sri Lanka series.

“But now he will never return home,” Saleem said after Zafar was buried in his ancestral village near Manshera in the North West Frontier Province on Wednesday.

Zafar was a great lover of cricket something which landed him the job of a driver for the travel agency which specialises in providing transport to visiting cricketers and officials on behalf of the PCB.

“Zafar was also the driver when the New Zealand team returned home from Karachi in 2002 after the bomb blast outside their team hotel. This time he had no escape from death,” Saleem said.