Bashir’s mother, Naz Bano, previously told Aid to the Church in Need that her son first joined the volunteer security guards at their church in November 2014.
“All denominations were recruiting youth following the 2013 suicide bomb attack at All Saints Church in Peshawar City,” she said. “Akash used to discuss it with his friends and kept insisting for three months that he wanted to guard the church. He was ready to sacrifice his life if God gave him a chance to protect others.”
She remembered hearing explosions the day that he died.
“The streets were filled with people,” she recalled. “Hearing the second blast, I rushed with my youngest son towards the Catholic church.”
Eventually, she found whom she was looking for: her son.
“I was searching for Akash among the boys standing near the church gate,” she said. “But he was lying down in the dirt. His right arm was almost ripped off. I could not believe my eyes.”
Today, she said, another one of her sons, Arsalan, now guards the church “to take the place of his brother.”
“We did not stop him,” she said. “We cannot prevent our sons from serving the Church. It is their choice.”
She described her son, Akash, as a “part of my heart.”
“But our happiness is greater than our grief,” she told ACN. “He was a simple boy who died in the path of the Lord and saved the priest and worshippers. People love him. Akash is already our saint.”
Former Washington, D. C., correspondent Katie Yoder covered pro-life issues, the U.S. Catholic bishops, public policy, and Congress for Catholic News Agency. She previously worked for Townhall.com, National Review, and the Media Research Center.