 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, 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. "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. 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. Homes where despair lives in empty rooms, where the silence is of the grave. "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. 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." 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.
– 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.)