Aitazaz Hassan Bangash was more man than most adult males you'll meet in your lifetime.
On January 5th, 2013, a man dressed in a school uniform asked the ninth-grader and his cousin, Musadiq Ali Bangash, how to get to the Ibrahimzai School in the Hangu district of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They gave him directions, but then became suspicious and tried to stop him. Aitazaz finally tackled the man at the main gate of the school, and panicking, the suicide bomber detonated his bomb. Aitazaz died in the blast, but saved an unknown number of Sunni and Shia students, gathered for morning assembly, from death and injury.
Aitazaz's father, Mujaad Ali Bangash, raised a good man, and now must suffer the loss of his son at the hands of another whose father failed to raise a good man. The power of Aitazaz's sacrifice cannot be calculated.
There are heroes every day that step up, but you don't expect them to be only 14 years old. On the other hand, the citizens of Pakistan and Afghanistan live with a special kind of evil that makes targets of innocent people, even children. It's beyond tragic.
Copyright (c)2014 Todd Grigsby, all rights reserved
