Essay on the topic: That was the day I felt what fear meant....

That was the day I felt what fear meant....

Words: 590

Written By: Hamid Zia

Composed By: Wajahat Mahar

It was the winter of December and we got a letter from the authorities that we had to leave for South Waziristan to inspect a hospital which had been recently constructed. Beside that, we also had to check some schools which were completely devastated during the war on terror. We, along with my mates, Ibrar, Sajid, Hamza, Akbar, Ibrahim and Ali, packed our luggage and waited outside our house for the pickup truck. Three off-road pickup trucks arrived, we threw our luggage, which included clothes, a radio, some pens and some papers.

It was a six hour drive but due to some technical faults in the trucks, we reached our destination at 10:pm at night. The nights, especially in Waziristan, are very cold and one cannot go outside without a cloak around him. South Waziristan, is rigged, hostile and dangerous for outsiders. A land which has taken hundreds of human lives. It is a very poor area of Pakistan. The people living here have no jobs to earn their living. The area is not flat and only few people have lands to grow crops for their use.
We spent the night at a rest house which was also effected by the shelling. All night we heard sounds of gun fire and explosions. Ibrahim got frightened because he was always scared of firecrackers and now he was in a zone where explosions, hundred times greater then firecrackers, were heard.
The next day, we got ready to check some schools. We got in the pickup trucks and rushed towards the site. A local Sher Ali, joined us because he was the only one who knew the area.
                                  "Why have you people come here?", he asked
                                  "We are sent by the government to help you people" said Akbar.
                                  "Help? Go back, you can't help us!", he replied
There appeared to be some grief and resentment in Sher's Ali words. But, what can we do?As we reached the place, we all got a huge shock to see the condition of the school. The children were being taught under the trees and only few of them had books in their hands. I asked the principle about the condition. He said:
                       "The schools have been completely devastated because of the war"
                         "Children quit their studies to help their parents earn money"
We stayed at the school the whole day. We tool photographs of the schools so that we could prepare a report on the condition of the education system ion the tribal area. The sun had already set and we were told to come back to the rest house. Sher Ali appeared to be very worried, I inquired about the condition. He told me that at night, the Talibans patrol the area for any outsider. If they find any, they kill him in cold blood. We all heard what he said but handed over our fate to God.
We were on our way to the rest house when suddenly Sher Ali got sight of a Taliban patrol vehicle. He immediately told the driver to pull over. He told us to get out of the vehicle and turn off the engine and head lights. Before anything could be done, the insurgents got sight of out vehicle. They rushed towards us. We hid in a cave which was closed from three sides. The insurgents kept looking for us. That was the day I felt what fear meant. We expected every breath to be our last. But after a couple of minutes of search, the insurgents went away. That was the most horrifying event of my whole life. If they had found us, then we could have been slaughtered. It was the God's hand which saved us. Sher Ali also played a vital role in saving us because if he hadn't seen the insurgents, they could have killed us.