(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The candle-lighting ceremony was attended in large numbers 400 according to the press officer.
Dubai: December is a difficult month for Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari whose mother Benazir Bhutto former prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated seven years ago on December 27 in Rawalpindi Pakistan.
Javed Jalil Khattak and Bakthwar Bhutto Zardari at the candlelight vigil at the Pakistan Consul-General’s house in Dubai. — KT photo by Mohammad Mustafa Khan
Paying tribute to the 132 schoolchildren who were killed in Peshawar Bhutto Zardari was present at the BurJuman residence of Javed Jalil Khatak Consul-General of Pakistan in Dubai on a windy Thursday evening.
Kept company by Khatak’s daughter Meena Bhutto Zardari in green salwar kameez head covered in green ‘chunni’ was not keen on being photographed or talking to the media. In a brief chat with Khaleej Times she did though say she was here “to express solidarity..”.
There are no words she said. “This December is seven years since my mother was killed” she said in an almost inaudible tone her eyelashes damp and wearing a stoic smile. “We are the bravest nation. We keep going on. These attacks on children keep happening and despite schools being targeted we keep going on.”
The candle-lighting ceremony was attended in large numbers — 400 according to the press officer. Wreaths of white chrysanthemums and white roses were strewn about a wooden table and some placed at the base of the flagpole in the CG’s lawns.
A sombre mood prevailed as parents bought their young ones to the venue and assisted them in the lighting of candles of all shapes tall white candles and the small round ones the flames of some of which kept going out due to the breeze.
Posters bearing colour photographs and printouts of green sweater-wearing boys were clipped on to tree branches. Posters also bearing messages of outrage and hashtags(#international outcry) were blowing in the wind too tentatively clipped on to the leaves of the Damas trees. “132 dreams 132 families...” “They went to school and never came back” read some of the messages.
nivritikhaleejtimes.com