Here is a story of a young man who would have been dead today but escaped death by its whiskers. Read through and see how God saved this man from losing his life together with his colleagues in a plane crash.
These are the words of Shane Hussain Naqvi. 28 July 2010 was the dark day that I was supposed to board an Air Blue flight from Karachi to Islamabad.
Being part of the third batch of Youth Parliament I had been visiting Islamabad frequently in the many sessions of the Parliament.
This was to be the last session that I had to attend. I was staying at a friend’s place and had planned to go from there but we ended up gisting late into the night and I almost decided to delay my visit, since this was the closing session, I decided to join later and not go with my colleagues the next morning.
With that thought in mind, I slept like a baby. The next day, I started getting calls on my mobile phone constantly from a lot of members, (which was unusual but not uncommon).
I looked at the phone and seeing they were all related to the parliament (other members, Organizing committee etc) I assumed they must be inquiring about when I was reaching. So I kept sleeping ignoring the calls and decided to call them back up once I was up and inform them that I won’t be coming today.
Little did I know they were calling me because mine was the only phone working. After some time, I got a call from the father of one of my fellow Parliamentarian, which got my attention. I picked up the call and heard a surprised and hopeful voice asking me where I was.
I told him I did not go to Islamabad. I was thinking he may want to get in touch with her and she may not be picking up the phone. Then he informed me that the plane had crashed into the Margalla Hills. I was stunned.
I did not know what to say or how to respond. I just told him that I will call you back I will call someone in Islamabad and find out what the situation was. Until then the TV was not showing much detail.
I called one of the Organizers and he told me he was standing at the crash site. It was clear that there were no survivors. I can not describe that feeling.
I have never felt that. I was supposed to call that person back and tell him about his daughter not surviving. I was also thinking of all the other friends that were on-board. 6 of them. And 140+ people in total. Kids, mothers, people. All gone.
Strangely enough, since we had a group ticket, I was listed among the people on board and when the list of victims was shown on TV and other media, my name was part of it.
A lot of people started calling my home, my relatives, family, friends and even acquaintances. They would ask me from my parents, who had no idea why all these people were calling. They had not seen the TV.
They were curious why they were getting so many calls from people they hadn’t heard from in a long time even. Of course, none of the callers had the gut to break “the news” to them. When they realized my parents didn’t know, they would just end the call after some small talk.
Finally, I got a call on my phone from my mom and I told her I was fine and told her the news. She said no wonder I have been getting calls all day. I finally went back home that evening.
My facebook and phone were filled with messages and calls from so many people who saw my name on the list of victims. But I was numb. Some also congratulated me but I did not know how to respond. to Celebrate my life or mourn the death of my friends?
It was a big loss for me and I have never cried so much the way I did when I went to see the parents of the victims. They all hugged me and were happy for me but I felt so guilty. I don’t know why.
I pray they are in a better place now. To this day, we don’t know why the plane crashed. There are many conspiracy theories, but the families still don’t know what happened to their loved ones.
It’s a sad sad story. Most of us have been through a near-death experience or you have a story similar to that of Hussein, but God spared your life.
He did so not because you are better than the whole lots who lost their lives in the incident or because you deserved a little more time on earth, or you are more beautiful or young, God spared your life because there is something you are here to accomplish and you’ve not accomplished that task.
Why not strive to find out what that is and make it come through.
