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By Ivan Watson, CNN
November 11, 2009 5:25 p.m. EST STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Janitor Pervaiz Masih lauded as national hero after attack at
Muslim university
* He stopped suicide bomber reaching room full of female Muslim students
* Bomber exploded vest killing Masih but blast hit into parking lot,
not cafeteria
* Professor: Despite being a Christian, he sacrificed his life to
save Muslim girls Islamabad, Paksitan (CNN) -- Life is slowly getting back to normal at
the women's campus of Islamabad's International Islamic University.
The young women who study here chatter on the school's well-manicured
lawns, their brightly-colored scarves and Pakistani dresses blowing in
the wind on a sunny autumn day. Barely three weeks ago, this quiet place of learning was the scene of a
nightmare. On October 20, two suicide bombers launched near simultaneous
attacks on both the men's and women's side of the campus. Afsheen Zafar, 20, is in mourning. Three of her classmates, girls she
describes as "shining stars," were killed on that terrible day. Still, she says the carnage could have been much worse if not for the
actions of a lowly janitor, who was also killed. "If he didn't stop the suicide attacker, there could have been great,
great destruction," Zafar says. "He's now a legend to us," says another 20-year-old student named Sumaya
Ahsan. "Because he saved our lives, our friends' lives."
Gallery: Janitor averted suicide bombing massacre The janitor's name was Pervaiz Masih. According to eyewitness accounts,
the attacker approached disguised in women's clothing. He shot the guard
on duty, and then approached the cafeteria, which was packed with
hundreds of female students. Masih intercepted the bomber in the doorway, however, and the bomber
self-detonated right outside the crowded hall, spraying many of his
explosive vest's arsenal of ball bearings out into the parking lot
instead of into the cafeteria. "The sweeper who was cleaning up here saw someone outside and went
towards him," said Nasreen Siddique, a cafeteria worker who was wounded
in the head, leg and arm by the blast. "[Masih] told him that he could
not come inside because there were girls inside. And then they started
arguing. And then we heard a loud blast and all the glass broke." "Between 300 to 400 girls were sitting in there," said Professor Fateh
Muhammad Malik, the rector of the university. "[Pervez Masih] rose above
the barriers of caste, creed and sectarian terrorism. Despite being a
Christian, he sacrificed his life to save the Muslim girls." Masih was a member of Pakistan's Christian minority, traditionally one
of the poorest communities in the country. When the attacker struck, Masih had been on the job for less than a
week, earning barely $60 a month.
As a Christian ... he stood in front of the Taliban to protect the
university.
--Government minister Shabaz Bhatti Masih lived with seven other family members, in a single room in a
crowded apartment house in the city of Rawalpindi. Until the attack his
mother, 70-year old Kurshaid Siddique, worked as a cleaning lady at a
nearby house to help make ends meet. Now, she makes a daily pilgrimage
to the cemetery where Masih is buried. Siddique is inconsolable. Asked if she was proud that some people were
calling her son a hero, Siddique waved a hand in the air dismissively,
answering, "My hero is dead now." She pulls out a framed photo of her son, pictured wearing a button down
white shirt and a thick mustache. When Masih's three-year-old daughter
Diya sees his photo, she reaches for it, saying, "Mama, I want that
picture." From time to time, Diya turns to her mother and repeats one word, "Papa." The Islamic University offered to give Diya a free education and employ
Masih's widow, Shaheen Pervaiz. Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has promised to award Masih's family
1 million rupees (about $12,000) for his bravery. "He is a national hero because he saved the life of many girls," said
Shahbaz Bhatti, minister of minorities in the Pakistani government. "As
a Christian, a person of minority, he stood in front of the Taliban to
protect the university." But the grave of this national hero is a sorry sight. It is located in
the poorer, garbage-strewn Christian half of a neighborhood cemetery,
less then three feet from a muddy road. Masih's mother and widow visit every day. One of his sisters crosses
herself, then stoops down to pick up an empty pack of cigarettes someone
threw onto the little mound of earth. The family had to borrow money to pay for Masih's funeral and they are
now behind on paying the rent. If the government money comes through,
Masih's mother would like to decorate her son's grave. "I would like him to have his name in cement with a nice poetry verse,"
she says. "And there should be a fence surrounding his grave."
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