ISLAMABAD: Seventy-year-old Ghulam Hussain was the first line of defence that stood between the Qasr-i-Sakina Imambargah and the suicide bomber who tried to infiltrate it on Wednesday.

The only armed member of the imambargah’s security contingent, Hussain delayed the attacker at the gate when he tried to close it. The attacker shot him several times, which alerted those inside and allowed them more time to take defensive action.

A battle-scarred veteran of the 1971 war, Hussain’s son Khurram said his father had been volunteering for guard duty at the imambargah for two years now. “All he wished for was a martyr’s death, and now he’s found it,” a visibly emotional Khurram told Dawn.

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Hussain was not the only unsung hero to have died defending an imambargah. With the recent spike in terrorist attacks against Shias’ places of worship, it is always the security team – consisting almost exclusively of volunteers – that is directly in the line of terrorists’ fire. In four attacks on imambargahs across the country over the past month, several of those killed have been security volunteers.

But rather than being cowed, the spirits of these brave young men are higher than ever before.

Fifty-year-old Syed Abul Hasan watches over the faithful milling in and out of the Imambargah Zainabiya in Sector G-6 every day. From his perch at the entrance, he says that dying in the service of the worship place would be a great honour for him.

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“Back in the day, there was no sectarianism; everyone lived peacefully... but in the 1980s, under the Ziaul Haq regime, some players started this bloody game, which has claimed thousands of innocent lives until now,” he said, adding that there was a foreign hand behind the rising incidence of attacks against Shia places of worship in Pakistan.

Hasan, a father of six, told Dawn the government should work to eliminate all extremist group, regardless of their affiliation, sectarian or otherwise. The old man who gets Rs 10,000 per month as a stipend, says that even though this meagre amount isn’t enough to pay the bills, he doesn’t care. “For me, the salary doesn’t matter; I’m doing a far more important duty as part of my religious obligation,” he says.

Before the attack on the Qasr-i-Sakina Imambargah, the last time a suicide bomber tried to visit death upon an imambargah in the capital was in Bhara Kahu in 2013. There too, a major tragedy was averted when the attacker was tackled by the volunteer on duty and he was unable to detonate his vest.

Niaz Hussain Awan, another volunteer deployed outside the Imambargah Zainabiya said that after Shakrial incident, everybody was even more pumped up for their duty.

“The latest incident has proven that terrorists are targeting imambargahs and the government should do its job in rooting out extremists who are bent upon destroying this country,” he said.

Kohat-resident Shah Sadaan, who guards the main gate to the Markazi Imambargah Isna Ashri Sector G-6/2, said that every attack on an imambargahs anywhere in the country only strengthened their resolve more.

Even though their spirits are high, there is a palpable tension in the air. Nearly all volunteers are now armed, either with shotguns or automatic weapons. Outside the imambargahs, there is also a police vehicle each, with burly men standing at attention.

“Though the police cooperates with us fully, we can’t rely solely on them. In case something happens, we will prefer to confront the terrorists on our own, because we won’t allow them to get into the imambargah at any cost,” Sadaan said.

feel proud of being here to protect the life of Muslims,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 21th , 2015

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