The day Benazir was Killed
That was really an ordinary day that turned out to be the most extraordinary day of the history of Pakistan. Benazir was killed just before the sunset on 27th of December 2007. Most of the people now remembered that incident as a political Tsunami that caused a great havoc in the country. People's experiences of that day were weird and every Pakistani individually , in his or her own-most capacity experienced a life threatening situation. Following is a description of how Pakistanis experienced that murder.
Individual experiences can be described under the following themes:
1. Experience of a life -threatening element in the Environment
2. future worries
3. Adjusting with the situation
Experience of a life -threatening element in the Environment
Most of the people who were out on the streets that day faced a threat to their lives. Importantly most of them did not know the cause of this changing environment and,without knowing what was happening , they acted the way others were acting.
A 35 year old man , from Karachi, who was coming back to his home from the work thus narrated his account:
" I got down from the bus and all of a sudden I noticed that everybody on the street was running and none of them , I believed ,knew what was happening. I saw them and the fear and hazard was so compelling that I also started running. Initially I just ran without any consideration of the direction, but then I found that I was running towards my home . I had never ran that fast, as I ran that day, without knowing why I was running. I ran for half an hour and reached my home, and then I asked people at home that I came running, can anybody tell me the reason why? and then somebody from the neighbors told that it was because Benazir was killed in Islamabad half an hour ago. And listening this the fear in my heart increased and we all locked the doors from inside and sat in a room to see what was happening."
Another person, a girl who was to be married on the 27th of December, was in a beauty saloon along with her mother and a sister, getting ready for her marriage. And like all other brides of the country who were visiting beauty saloons that day , she spent that night in the saloon, amidst fires and fears.
There were people who spent that night on the road hiding beneath wrecked auto vehicles or in garbage drums. Nobody knew whether he would ever be reaching home to see his or her relatives again. So, mobility ceased and roads were burning, and there was turmoil everywhere without any exception.
Future worries
In the main city area , called Sadder bazaar, people from every corner came out in millions and they wrecked just everything. Others were so uncertain that they were grabbing anything of daily need and necessity from the shops left open by the shopkeepers, and among them there were poor people and millionaires both. For neither the millionaire knew that he would be able to get anything afterwards nor the poor. Everybody was in a frenzy. If hazard has some meaning in the world it clarified only that day.
Most of the people were worried about the future of their country. Some were thinking that Pakistan would not survive this shock . And these were the people who had seen and suffered almost all kinds of terrorism and calamities, yet that day their was something qualitatively different. How different it was could be ascertained from the fact that for four day not a boat moved in the ocean , alongside 500 KM long Pakistani coast, with millions of fishermen. Even on the remote mountains where the government does not directly claim any rule, any kind of activity was seen. Everything just ceased, and this was really a threatening situation.
Adjusting with the situation
It took some while before people really came back to themselves. Those who were on the streets were not able to contact people back at home, for mobile services were not working. However, after the night passed people gradually dared to came out of their hidings and started reaching homes. However, in most of the regions no food itmems were available, those who were sick they did not get any medical attention, and all sorts of things happened. Yet people somehow managed to came out of this trauma.
This incident really caused what one can call a political Tsunami, no revolution no political change of modern times can match the hazard of that day. A nation of 180 million people living in an area of around 800000 square Kms, was shaken and spilled out of the land like water is shaken and spills out of a cup.
By: Khalid Jamil Rawat
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