Brave mother of two, who shielded family during militant attack, praised for courage amid adversity

KARACHI: The husband of a woman who last week took six bullets but shielded her children by lying over them during a militant attack said on Saturday he was “proud” of his courageous wife, who, despite being shot, cried out to protect their children.
On December 2, 35-year-old Bulbul Shah, accompanied by his wife Bibi Roshan and their two children Umaima and Arsalan, boarded a bus in his hometown of Ghizer in Gilgit-Baltistan to travel to Karachi where they hoped to begin a new life.
Amid the fanfare, this unsuspecting family could not anticipate they would find themselves in a Karachi hospital a week later, following a harrowing experience immediately after crossing the northern town of Chilas, which has witnessed militant violence in the past.
The bus carrying about 45 passengers came under fire by armed men carrying automatic weapons, killing 10 people and injuring many more. Shah, who had dozed off during the journey by the time of the incident while holding his daughter in his lap, said his 28-year-old wife frantically pushed him from his seat and hid both children under it in the midst of flying bullets.
“Despite being hit by six bullets, she was saying that nothing had happened to her,” Shah told Arab News outside a Karachi hospital where his wife was brought for treatment. “She was just thinking of saving our children. With this spirit, I am proud of her.”
The driver tried to swerve and speed away amid the volley of bullets but was also hit. The bus descended down a slope in the mountainous terrain on its own. Shah recalled how the whole family huddled, bracing for the worst, but the bus came to a halt after hitting a truck.
The attackers escaped after the collision, he said, possibly thinking that the bus was going to catch fire.
“She said, ‘Save the children,’” he continued. “She kept crying, ‘Leave me, nothing will happen to me, just save the children.’”
It was only after the bus stopped that he realized his wife had been shot multiple times and was unable to move her lower body. Even while being driven to the hospital, Roshan never lost consciousness.
“She was asking about the children, asking me to take care of them,” Shah recollected.
He said it was not easy to face the situation that his family experienced.
“In such circumstances, thousands of thoughts come into your mind, making you wonder what will happen to the children if you get shot. Or how will you feel if your children are shot in front of you.”
Shah expressed gratitude to the locals of Chilas, who rushed to the hospital to donate blood and transported the wounded for medical treatment on private vehicles.
He also applauded the doctors for dealing with the emergency situation efficiently, praised the military for providing a helicopter for his family to travel to Rawalpindi, and thanked the Balochistan administration for arranging a plane to transport Roshan to Karachi.
“I always knew she was brave and would act courageously,” he said. “I am immensely proud of her.”