MARDAN April 25 2008:   A powerful bomb exploded near the City Police Station here on Friday morning, killing three persons including ASI. Twenty six (26) were wounded. Some are critical.

 

The bomb was planted in a car near the police station and went off around 6 AM. Assistant Sub Inspector, Farrukh Said, owner of a Ahotel Sher Muhammad and another person Fazal Subhan were killed instantly.

 

Twenty-six persons including Shamsur Rehman, Noushad, Noor Ali, Aziz Gul,Muhammad Raffique, Lal Nawaz, Saeed Khan, Nazir Ahmed, Hidayat Khan,Tauheed, Anwar Shah, Riaz Khan, Inmtiaz, Nazir Muhammad and Sabir were among the injured.

 

The injured are receiving treatment in Mardan and Peshawar Hospitals.

An emergency has been declared in the hospital.All the doctors and paramedics were immediately called from their homes.

 

More than 20 shops were destroyed. The Police Station building collapsed killing the personnel inside.

 

Police said that number of casualty may further increase. Police has registered the case and are investigating who is behind the blast.

 

The incident is a blow to the efforts of the new government who is trying to bring peace to the province.

UNESCO in Mardan

A delegation of UNESCO visited Mardan on Wednesday,the 26 March 2008.The district government of Mardan in association with a number of vlountary organisations arranged a cultural event in Takhtbai, close to Gandhara Archaelogical site.UNESCO has declared this site as one of the its world heritage sites.
The district Nazim Himayatullah Mayar,the DCO and ACO syed Fayyaz Ali Shah briefed the delegation.The team of Mardan.com took an active part.Usman Mardanvi made a nice presentation about the Heritage,Culture and history of Mardan.


There were a number of stalls representing various aspects of local culture and social aspects of the people of Mardan.Children from "Roots" school actively participated. There was folk music, local Khattak dance and the traditional Pushtun dance "Attan".


The delegation appreciated the efforts of the locals.It promised that UNESCO will take interest in the promotion of local Pukhtun culture ,advancement in education and preservation of the various historical sites in Mardan.

Pasoon..

The Bimonthly Pushto magazine has achieved a very high standard and the March April edition is yet another top quality number. It is the “Ghobal Edition”. The contents include articles and poems of some of the best Pushto writers.

It has been already circulated to those who have subscribed to Pasoon. Those who have not subscribed yet can get it from their local Book Agencies.

You can read some of the articles online by visiting:
www.pasoon.org

Shopping Plaza

The district government has decided to build shopping plazas on the uncovered areas of the hospitals including the DHQ Hospital on Shamsi Road. In an official meeting it was decided that a two storey shopping plaza will be built on two sites, one on the female side and one on the male side of the hospital.The idea behind such proposals is that the income generated will be spent to improve facilities for the patients. The main disadvantage of this decision will be the increase rate of infection in the hospitals. The open and green area will be destroyed.Moreover there will be health and safety issues because of the increase in the number of people and traffic around the hospital areas.

Mardan Museum

The construction work on the new building of Mardan Museum is progressing well. This was stated by the district Nazim Himayatullah Mayar while inspecting the site work. The public works engineer Abdul Hafiz Sawal and other concerned staff also accompanied the Nazim. The work will probably finish in the next four months.

The new museum site is on Mardan Charsadda Road and will cost around 17.5 million rupees. This will attract visitors from all around the world and will have more space to reflect on Gandhara and other history. It is possible that the statues which have been the history of Mardan but have been taken away to other museums will be returned to Mardan Museum. There will be a small park and cafeteria facilities for the visitors.

International Language Day..

International Mother Language Day is a remembrance day to honour those great language martyrs who sacrificed their lives on 21st February, 1952 in Bangladesh. It was East Pakistan then and people were asking the Central Government to declare Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan.

Thousands of students and others went on the streets in support of their language. The army and police came down heavy handed on them and as a result student leaders and other people were killed.

Bangladesh put forward a proposal to UNESCO on 17 November 1999 and a resolution was passed to declare 21st February as an International Mother Day. Every nation has the right to promote and work for its mother language.

On this day walks and gatherings are arranged all over the world.

One sch was walk was organised today in Mardan by Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and a Pushto language support organisation Maraka Mardan................(21 Feb 2008.............Akbar Hoti) 

Hospital...

Team of Mardan.com.......Published in Frontier Post:     The frequency of Bomb blasts in Mardan is rapidly on the increase. In the last two months at least five bombs exploded in different areas of Mardan District. So far we are lucky that the number of casualties in these blasts is low. But if these attacks continue then this number will definitely go higher.

The question now is what will happen if a bomb explodes in a busy market place which is full of people? Obviously it will be a major disaster and there will be fatalities and serious injuries. The victims will need immediate ambulance service and treatment in the hospitals of Mardan. These hospitals are already underfinanced and the medical facilities are negligible. It will be wrong to send these patients to Peshawar where the situation is even worse. The government dose not have the capability of stopping these attacks and the people can only pray for their safety and lives. But what the government can do is to start working on a Major Disaster Plan. It needs to improve the health facilities and train the doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and other personnel of the hospitals in Mardan as well as other districts. With the government claiming to have a huge financial reserve, it shall not be a big burden on the ministry of Finance.

Sports Complex...

The work on Mardan Sports Complex is going on well.It will be a good and healthy facility for the people of Mardan.At one stage it looked as the work will be delayed due to shortage of funds.This raises the fear that the complex may not be ready for a long period of time. 

Saro Baba...

Zia Saro:  

1. It is known from the elders that Mirghazan Baba was born in a small village called Fatima near Katlung around 1880 at the house of a peasant named Jalandar. He was the only child of the parents who came from Momand Tribe and sub tribe Bharakhel. The family moved to Saro Shah in 1892 for economic reasons. Here they got a piece of agriculture Land from the father of Mir Afzal Khan on lease basis. However, it is quite interesting that he never had a chance to go to school and only used to work in fields with his father. Still every one appreciated his intelligence from the childhood. As a child he used to talk and discuss the problems of poor and disadvantaged people. He used to hate the class system.He always asked why the children of poor peasants were not given the opportunity of education. 

2. His entry into active politics was never seen just by mere chance but certainly on merits. And here the only merit he possessed was his good intelligence and coupled with lot of hard work. During the ‘SURKHPOOSH’ movement his political acumen got polished and he was appointed District General Secretary of the Tehreek on the basis of his sheer involvement and efforts. He remained actively involved in the Tehreek and actually mesmerized the people with his thought provoking and emotional speeches. During this period he was also made responsible for distributing the coffin cloth in the area. As in those days coffin cloth used to be on permit and he was permit holder for the same. This duty was assigned on the basis of his honesty by the area elders. 

3. He remained a strong advocator of economic exploitation by the Jagirdars, the Nawabs and Khans. In 1963-64, the lands on lease were withdrawn from him and all others by Mir Afzal Khan. This led to his joining the “Mazdoor Kissan Tehreek”, a well organised programme for human rights. He would always remain on run and giving emotional speeches to educate the downtrodden segment of society on their rights. This was the period when he was rose to a prominent leader in MK Tehreek. He used to even listen to read out newspaper from a young school going kid in the Hujra or at a designated place and then give his very credible comments on the news item. For the same purpose people would gather around him and then very profusely wait for his opinion. It was a miracle that he could make out sense from Urdu speech/read out and could read Pushto news papers. This all in absence of any formal education.

4. Third stage of his political life was witnessed and described by many, that after the fall of East Pakistan he associated himself with the slogan of Roti, Kapra awr Makan by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He liked the ideas and joined the Peoples party on his own. At this phase he was without any known sources of income but even then remained steadfast on his principles. Very honest approach to all and was never seen to talk or crib about his own difficult economic position and other known uncertainties. He remained steadfast in his conviction and was a poised religious man but never hesitated to speak truth in front of any odds.

5. His personal and family life was also not full of roses. He was the only child of his parents and had only one son. He remarried after the death of his first wife but had no children from the second wife.

6. His departure from the material world (story) is very sad and very alarming. He not only admired his leader but people say that he used to see himself in ZAB. It is on the record that after the news of the death (hanging) of ZAB, he could not believe for a few days whether the news is true or otherwise. And once convinced that it has happened, he never waited, went to the local mosque at 0900 hrs in April 1979, made ablution, offered prayers and jumped into the Masjid well. On hearing the sound people came close to the well and spotted him in the well but could not rescue him. Prior to his jumping into the well he indirectly disclosed this news to one of his dear friends by saying that ‘if the dictators can hang ZAB, then there is no logic to live further’. This was probably taken as a passing comment but proved true after moments.