The words do not flow now, there are no cutting comments or quotes, no wit, and even less wisdom. There is only a deep sorrow, and an even deeper rage. It flows like fire through dull veins to a heart thought to have been numbed, a heart that desperately wants to be numbed. 
 
 So the words that follow will not be tempered and measured. They will not be weighed and balanced. And this is because we live in a land where a young child, Aitezaz Hussain, had to give his life fighting a scourge that our own leaders bend over backwards in an attempt to appease. There is sorrow and rage because a nation that can produce such lions does not deserve to be led by such lambs. 
 
 For those just now attending this bitter wake, Aitezaz was a 13-year-old-boy who stopped a suicide bomber from entering his classroom. Arriving late for school, he was punished by not being allowed to attend the morning assembly. Standing outside the gate, he saw a man trying to enter. He saw the detonator of his suicide vest; he saw a split second chance and saved countless lives with a courage few of us can match. Had he not been there, had he not done what he did, dozens, maybe hundreds of children would have lost their lives in a flash of fire, their bodies torn apart by cruel, blind shrapnel. 
 
 And as their hearts would stop beating, the souls of those who loved them would also dim and die. It would remain unanswered, the question of what may have been. It would be deafening, the absent echo of laughter through a house. It would be unbearable, the waiting for a child who would never return, would never grow up, never live and never love. 
 
 Instead, there is only one family that will have to bear this burden; only one mother who will never welcome her son home. It’s still one too many. And there are many such homes across the length and breadth of this blighted land. Homes where despair lives in empty rooms, where the silence is of the grave. 
 
 From what the family says, they stand tall. In this moment of darkness, they hold onto the belief that their child did not die in vain, that he made the greatest sacrifice possible, that his blood bought life by stopping a beast who walked with and worshipped nothing but death. But for how long? The world will move on, the focus – what little there is of it – will shift and they will be left alone in empty rooms, waiting for a voice that will never be heard again. 
 
 We don’t need more Aitzazs’. Not one or one million. What we need is to be worthy of the one we lost. What we need is for those who claim to lead us to show the courage that this boy did. Perhaps, that is too much to ask from those who roll out apologies and obfuscations with such unerring regularity, but stammer and shake when it comes to naming those responsible for mass murder. 
 
 Those who can pray for and praise killers before the blood of their victims has even dried. We need those men and women who can look Aitzaz’s family in the eye, hold them in their arms and tell them – in all honesty – that their son did not die in vain. 
 
 And until you can do that, dear leaders, keep your hollow words to yourselves. Leave us to our silence. ||||| Aitizaz Hasan, 15, is praised for saving classmates' lives by tackling bomber outside his school in north-western Pakistan 
 
 A 15-year-old who died while tried to defend his school in Pakistan's troubled north-west from a suicide bomber has been hailed as a hero for saving the lives of many of his classmates. 
 
 Aitizaz Hasan tackled the bomber as he stood outside as a punishment for being late to school in Hangu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday. 
 
 His two companions fled the scene after spotting the bomb being carried by the man, who was trying to gain access to the school, but Aitizaz grabbed the bomber. 
 
 Unable to stop him from detonating his bomb, Aitizaz later died of his wounds in hospital. 
 
 Hangu has a large community of Shias, an Islamic sect which many militant groups regard as heretics who should convert to the majority Sunni faith or be killed. 
 
 Aitizaz's actions are thought to have saved the lives of many of the 2,000 students who were believed to be in the building at the time. 
 
 "My son made his mother cry, but saved hundreds of mothers from crying for their children," his father, Mujahid Ali, told the Express Tribune newspaper. 
 
 "There are a handful of people in the world who are martyrs; I am now one of those proud fathers whose son is among them." 
 
 Praise has poured in for Aitizaz's efforts, with some calling for him to be posthumously honoured. 
 
 On social media the young boy has been embraced as a national hero for fighting back at a time when most politicians are desperate to pursue a negotiated settlement with militant groups – a strategy condemned by many terrorism experts. 
 
 "We live in a land where a young child had to give his life fighting a scourge that our own leaders bend over backwards in an attempt to appease," wrote Zarrar Khuhro, a journalist for Dawn newspaper. 
 
 Suicide bomb attacks are increasingly common in Pakistan. A report earlier in the week by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies said suicide attacks had increased by 39% in 2013 to a total of 46. 
 
 On Thursday a crusading policeman famous for battling militants in the troubled city of Karachi was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber who rammed his car with an explosive-packed vehicle. 
 
 Chaudhry Aslam, who as head of Karachi's Criminal Investigation Department had survived numerous other assassination attempts, died alongside several other police officers in the Essa Nagri area of Karachi despite the protection of the bullet-proof car he was travelling in. ||||| Pakistani Teen Dies Stopping Bomber From Striking School 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Basit Shah/AFP/Getty Images Basit Shah/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 A teenager who was killed after reportedly stopping a suicide bomber at a school in northwest Pakistan is being hailed as a hero. 
 
 Aitizaz Hasan, 15, was late for school on Monday and as a punishment wasn't allowed to attend assembly, the Express Tribune newspaper said. 
 
 Hasan and two schoolmates were standing outside the Government High School Ibrahimzai in Hangu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when they saw a man approach. One of Hasan's friends spotted a detonator on the man; the schoolmates ran inside. But, as the newspaper wrote, "Aitizaz stood his ground and got hold of the bomber, who then detonated his vest." 
 
 "I had never thought that my brother would die such a great death," Hasan's older brother, Mujtaba Hasan, told the newspaper. "He sacrificed his life to save humanity." 
 
 Hasan's father, Mujahid Ali, said: "My son made his mother cry but saved hundreds of mothers from crying for their children." 
 
 There were 2,000 students at the school at the time of the attack, responsibility for which was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The U.S. State Department regards the group as a foreign terrorist organization. 
 
 The school is the only one in the Shiite-dominated part of Hangu. The area is known for violence against Shiites. 
 
 Principal Lal Baz told the newspaper: "The attack targeted education, and I am surprised neither the federal nor the provincial government functionary has visited the family. Their silence is condemnable." 
 
 Pakistanis and others are paying their tributes to the teenager on Twitter. Pakistan's media are also weighing in on Hasan's death. 
 
 Writing in the Dawn newspaper, columnist Zarrar Khuhro said: 
 
 "We don't need more [Aitizazes]. Not one or one million. What we need is to be worthy of the one we lost. What we need is for those who claim to lead us to show the courage that this boy did. Perhaps, that is too much to ask from those who roll out apologies and obfuscations with such unerring regularity, but stammer and shake when it comes to naming those responsible for mass murder." 
 
 Meanwhile, an explosion that targeted a police convoy in Karachi on Thursday killed three officers, including one of the city's top police officials.
– A 15-year-old kid in Pakistan is being hailed as a hero after local reports say he was killed while stopping a suicide bomber from entering his school. As the Express Tribune reports, Aitizaz Hasan was standing with two friends outside his school in Hangu when a man approached and said he needed to go inside. When one of the friends spotted a detonator, he and the other youth fled. But Aitizaz grabbed the bomber, who then set off his explosive and killed them both. Authorities credit him with saving the 2,000 or so people who were inside the school at the time. The story is spreading quickly on social media, with calls to honor the teen posthumously, reports the Guardian. Attacks against Shiites in the town are common, notes NPR, and critics say authorities are too timid to stop them. "We live in a land where a young child had to give his life fighting a scourge that our own leaders bend over backwards in an attempt to appease," writes journalist Zarrar Khuhro in the Dawn newspaper. (Click for the story of another hero.)