LAHORE: In an unusual instance, a wreath laid at the grave of slain AIG Hamid Shakeel contains the phrase “get well soon”, it was observed on Saturday.
The wreath was sent by former Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa in an acknowledgement of the services rendered by the police offer in fighting the criminal elements in the provincial capital of Balochistan, Quetta.
However, Gen Asim Saleem issued a clarification, terming it a grave misunderstanding. He said the “flower bouquet was sent when he [AIG Shakeel] initially got injured and came to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH). His attendant, police guys, took these flowers with them when his body was taken away from the hospital.” He elaborated that “we [army] didn’t go to [the] graveyard.
Furthermore, he said “the traditional wreath for funerals is different in shape from a wreath”, which meant the wreath was meant for the hospital, not his grave.
Calling the circulation of the picture a negative propaganda, he asked the media personnel to ignore this “disinformation campaign” against the Pakistan Army.
When Pakistan Today contacted Quetta Police spokesperson Shehzada Farhat for his take on the mishap, he said the whole episode was a result of human error and mismanagement of the event. In the aftermath of the attack, there was a lot to do which had kept people busy.
“The lower staff of police cannot read English so they thought flowers were for the graveyard and took these with them to the graveyard,” he said.
On Thursday, Additional Inspector General (AIG) Telecommunications Hamid Shakeel and two other police officials were martyred in a suicide attack in Quetta, police had said.
