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A PAKISTANI SCHOOLBOY who sacrificed his own life to save hundreds of his classmates by tackling a suicide bomber will have his school and a stadium named after him, officials announced today.
Aitzaz Hassan, a 15-year-old from the mainly Shiite Ibrahimzai village in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province become a national hero after intercepting the bomber before he was able to enter a school last week.
The teen died in hospital after the bomber blew himself up some 150 metres from the main gate of the school of 1,000 students. Nobody else was wounded or killed in the incident.
Amjad Afridi, a senior adviser to the provincial government, told AFP: “We have decided to name Aitzaz Hassan’s school after him. We will also construct a sports stadium in Hangu and will name it after Hassan.”
Afridi, who along with another senior official went to pay their personal respects to the family of Hassan, added the provincial government would also donate five million rupees (US$47,000) to the bereaved parents.
The award comes after the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week said it would seek “to approve the conferment of a top national bravery award Sitara-e-Shujjat (star of bravery)” on the teen.
Hassan’s act of bravery, which prevented the bomber from striking the morning school assembly, has received an outpouring of tributes from across Pakistan.
Newspapers, TV channels and blogs have demanded that he be commemorated.
Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban for championing girls’ right to education, also paid tribute to the teenager last week, describing him as “brave and courageous”.
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They are back…
The recession is officially over…
Hard to beat a good bumblebee monitoring scheme workshop!
Well, I’m pleased to see the return of the Southern Cuckoo Bumblebee. Ireland just wasn’t the same without him. Long may he live!
That’s got to bee good news , I know I’m buzzing about it !
Great book tip for y’all – A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson. Fascinating creatures, and I didn’t pay bumblebees a blind bit of attention down the years. Goulson will amaze you with what we know about them and intrigue/frustrate you with what we don’t. A must read for anyone into nature.
Thanks Winston. Amazon says it’ll be delivered next week! Love bees! Recently got a hive of honey bees on our farm and they’re thriving.
bee-jesus
Well spotted by the lad in St Endas park. Most folks would have swatted it.
Swatted it? Don’t know which side their bread is buttered on those people. Wipe out humans – nature goes on, nay thrives. Wipe out bees – Goodnight Irene – planet earth would be basically Mars with oceans in a short space of time.
I swear that type has been flying around the gardens in my house the last 10 years, looks the same anyway.. Big b***tards
Actually Shirley the one I saw recently in Cavan with a pin pushed through it was quite tiny.
The buzz around town is that this is easily the oldest bee in Ireland!!!!!!
It’s amazing what you find if you actually go out and look, ‘extinct’ frogs, monkeys, birds, fish all just hiding in the undergrowth laughing. We’ve had this grey-a**ed bumble bee and lots of others for years and early Spring this year brought them out to gorge on Willow and Gorse.
The same cuckoo bee that was recently found by naturalists in an old Co. Cavan graveyard has now arrived in Dublin. I am sure that it has been there all along but we just didn’t notice it.
I’ve seen this bee in my garden
I spotted one the other day with a black body and pink arse !!
Ran over one of those with the lawn mower.
Isn’t it strange that every cuckoo bee, in the entire species, does the same thing? Invades the nest and kills the resident queen. You’d expect it from one or two rogues, but the whole lot of them?!
We have a nest of them in our garden.
Stunning creatures.
Awesomeness
BEADS???
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