JK: A job that came too late!

Srinagar, Apr 10: A job finally came...but it was too late. In a tragic irony, a young Kashmiri engineer got selected to a government job more than three months after he was killed in a powerful landmine explosion near here.

Shabir Hussain Khan, an engineering graduate, was killed in the powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at Mirza Kamil Sahib Chowk in Hawal area of the Srinagar city on December 29 last year, three days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha or Bakri Eid.

Thirty-year-old Shabir was driving a motorcycle and on way to buy bakery products and sweets for the festival when he was hit by the splinters and bore the brunt of the blast. He died on the spot.

A pall of gloom had descended on Baghwanpora locality in Lal Bazar area in the city when his body reached there minutes after he had left home on the fateful day.

With a married sister, Shabir was the only son of his parents.

After passing out from the Regional Engineering College here in 2003 with an engineering degree, Shabir had been looking for a permanent government job, a dream of every educated Kashmiri.

In the meantime, he took a contractual job with the state Public Works Department (PWD) in 2003 to sustain himself.

After waiting for three long years for an opportunity to secure a government job, happiness finally came Shabir's way in 2006 when he appeared for an interview conducted by the state Services Selection Board for the post of Junior Engineer in Civil wing. According to his father, Showkat Ali Khan, Shabir sounded quite confident after the interview and was hopeful of getting selected.

But fate had something else in store for him. The cruel hands of death snatched him before he could see his dream come true.

On April 7, the Jammu and Kashmir government published a list of selected candidates for the post of Junior Engineer in Civil wing.

Shabir's name figured at serial number 36 out of 330 successful candidates in the list of open merit category, securing 69.42 per cent marks in the interview.

The list opened the unhealed wounds of the Khans and the memories of their son and the fateful day came alive.

Shabir's mother passed out and the father broke down when they received the appointment letter of their son.

''It is Allah's wish. What can we do? I am trying hard to console his mother...It was as if her son had died the second time,'' said Khan, who retired from the government service after working with the Power Development Department (PDD) in 1999.

''My son wanted to do something for the people and the state. I hope a deserving candidate gets the job in his place and does something good for the society,'' Khan said as he broke down again.

UNI