'Black Day' to Mourn the August 8, 2016 Civil Hospital Suicide Bombing, Which Killed 73 People Including Shaheed Baz Muhammad Kakar

Assalamualaikum. I am Ibrahim Zehri, and today I am going to tell you about a history that Balochistan can never forget.

The Pakistani nation has not been told that terrorists are coming from the west, the east, the north, the south. Politics is our right. Ever since we started, an oppressed people, there is a dominance over us. Whether we are from a party or not, we are political by birth. We are proud of this. We are political workers. We mean politics for our country, our mother, our people. As for the legal fraternity, I will tell you a clear thing: if any Pashtun oppresses a Punjabi, I am with the Punjabi.

And then came August 8th. The day when an explosion not only took precious lives but also drowned countless dreams, hopes, and families in mourning.

We begin the bulletin with news that Quetta is bleeding again. First, the target killing of Balochistan Bar Association President Bilal Anwar Kasi. When lawyers arrived at the Civil Hospital to receive the body, an explosion occurred. 40 people lost their lives, while more than 20 people were injured. Among the dead are former President of the Balochistan Bar, Baz Kakar, and a large number of lawyers.

He used to kiss my hand in front of everyone out of respect for me. We had a face-to-face meeting on the third day of Eid. Then we met on August 8th when I saw him in a state of martyrdom. I am so proud of his martyrdom, but we are worried... worried because a brother... a brother who fought for the people of God... But we get so much strength from his contribution to society, to the people, to the country. It's so strong that we become strong inside. People die in accidents too, they die of illness too. A terrorist killed him... he killed not only him but 150 people. That thing is painful for us, the way he was killed. You shouldn't kill innocent people like this. But their life, their life gives us so much strength... my whole family... if at this time they have patience and strength, it is because of his fulfilling life. We are so proud... people say it, we say it like our brother hasn't died, he hasn't been martyred, he's alive.

But history teaches us one thing for sure. Darkness can never defeat light until people let go of the hem of hope. That's why we didn't answer hatred with hatred. We answered it with education. We made books our weapon. And from here a new journey began. A journey for a better Balochistan.

Continued the Legacy and Mission of Shaheed Baaz Muhammad Kakar...

My name is Professor Dr. Lal Khan Kakar. I am an orthopedic and spinal surgeon by profession at Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences. And along with that, I am the Chairman of the Shaheed Baz Muhammad Kakar Foundation. As we all know, exactly 10 years ago today, at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, a suicide bomber came and martyred 72 lawyers of our Balochistan, from Gwadar to Zhob. After that, we, the educated people of Quetta, the residents of Quetta, the residents of Balochistan, together formed a foundation named Shaheed Baz Muhammad Kakar Foundation. Alhamdulillah, in the past 10 years, we have established 20 libraries in the province of Balochistan. Among them, 5 branches are in Quetta, and the rest are outside Quetta in remote areas. And the building we are sitting in for this interview is named Shuhda 8th August Female Digital Library. And this is not only Balochistan's, but Pakistan's first female library where students, management, canteen workers, all are female. So this is a huge success for our foundation regarding female empowerment.

This is a female digital library opened for us by Dr. Lal here in Jinnah Town, and I am a student of this library. It's a privilege that's provided to us by Dr. Lal, and we are very thankful to him for giving us this privilege. I am a medical student, and it's my second attempt at MDCAT. I have been preparing for MDCAT for two years. Earlier, I was preparing from home. But there was a lot of noise at home, and I couldn't study. So I really wanted a library, exclusively for females, so we could comfortably read here. But there was no such library. When I came to know that this library had opened, then I started my MDCAT journey from this library. And Alhamdulillah, my journey is almost about to complete, and within 10 days we have our MDCAT exam. Here, there are mostly CSS students and MDCAT students. And girls come to study here from different regions. Some are from hostels, some come from their homes, some come from different, far-off places. So we study here, and we also get an idea from each other on how we should study and whether our way of studying is correct or not. So we want to thank Dr. Lal very much for giving us this privilege, this opportunity to study. Because if he hadn't given us this opportunity, I don't think anyone in Quetta could have given us this opportunity. And even if they didn't, nobody would complain that you didn't give us this opportunity. But still, they thought about us and gave us a privilege and an opportunity to study in this library and build our future. Tomorrow, no matter how many doctors, how many CSS students graduate from here... whichever field they go to, they will be thankful to him for giving them this opportunity, this space, and for working so hard for them. So we want to thank him from the bottom of our hearts.

The benefit of this library for Balochistan, for the people, for the youth of Balochistan... the biggest benefit is that our divided society, the polarization... the main purpose of this library was more than just a library; it was to develop unity, agreement, and harmony among the youth of Balochistan. In which, Alhamdulillah, we have been very successful. And through these libraries, roughly 10,000 male and female students are benefiting monthly.

I have been studying here since roughly 2019. The facilities available here are not found in other libraries. Nowadays, people are facing financial problems, and students cannot be financially stable. If we don't have money for the fee one month, they compromise... if it's not paid, there's no problem. We want to thank Dr. Lal Muhammad Khan for giving us a facility where we can go to the library and meet our seniors, whether they are from CSS or competitive exams. We get motivation from them that we can do it. When I used to go to libraries in the bazaar... meaning there was no system there where I could communicate with people. Now I have found many people here for communication. We discuss here, whether it's about English or anything else. We get a lot of facilities here. Secondly, we are thankful to Lal Muhammad Saheb for providing us with facilities... whether it's Wi-Fi, water, electricity, internet connection, or magazines, they provide newspapers, books.

And I must add, regarding empowerment, regarding jobs, hundreds of male and female students prepare from these libraries and have secured jobs in large numbers through the Public Service Commission, PCS exams, CSS exams, and other competitive exams. I also want to tell you that all these foundations and libraries, we are running on a self-help basis. I have some friends, I personally requested them, and they gave some donations. But as we all know, running 20 libraries, bearing the expenses... and almost all of them are in rented buildings. Except for this library which was given to us by the Government of Balochistan, the Labor Department, for which we are grateful to the Chief Minister, the Labor Department Secretary Saleh Nasir, and the former Secretary Saboor Kakar. For the rented buildings, if we want to achieve our objective on a larger scale, I appeal to the government, I request the government... there are public properties that our people are not using. We offer the government that they give us buildings for all our libraries, or our existing libraries, so that the expenses we bear from our own pockets shift away from rent. We want to spend that money on the youth's future, their employment, to create unity and agreement among them, so that a peaceful, happy, and developed Balochistan can emerge, and love, affection, and harmony can develop among the people in Quetta. The 72 martyrs, those terrorists... we from the platform of the Shaheed Baz Muhammad Kakar Foundation challenge them and give them the message that no matter how many of our people you martyr, we will come back with more force, we will come back with more strength. A martyr doesn't die. Allah has said in the Quran that a martyr does not die, he remains alive, they are watching us, they are listening to us. So to take revenge for the blood of these martyrs from those terrorists who killed our brothers... this is a message for them that we will not only keep our martyrs' names alive but along with keeping their names alive, we will equip the youth with knowledge, education, technology, science, and unity in such a way that in the future no terrorist will even think of attacking our youth, our country, our province. This is our message for them. At the end, I appeal again to the people through your channel, your media, to come out of these hatreds... I am so-and-so, I am Baloch, I am Pashtun, I am Sindhi, I am Punjabi. We are all humans, we are all Pakistanis. After that, we are everything else.

Because every person is like family for this mission. Today we not only remember the martyrs of August 8th, but we keep their mission alive through education, service, peace, and unity.

And in the end, I will only say that if you also want to be a part of this change, then come, support these libraries, invest in the youth, and together let's build a Balochistan where the light of books outweighs every darkness. Thank you.

Produced & Directed by Ibrahim Abdullah. THE END :)