KARACHI: Deployed at the Khairpur railway station in southern Pakistan and tasked with preventing people from jumping onto moving trains, Police Constable Jameel Ahmed Kalhoro thought August 17 would be just another regular day at work.
But that would not be the case. This time, when the cop saved a passenger’s life, a bystander captured the moment on video and uploaded it to social media. The footage went viral, earning Kalhoro praise from far and wide, including, to his surprise and joy, from the prime minister of Pakistan.
“I can’t express how happy I was when a friend first showed me a tweet by the prime minister sharing my viral video with a lot of appreciation,” Kalhoro told Arab News on Monday. “It was so kind of him.”
The video shows the constable running to save a passenger who falls off a moving train and is stuck in the space between the carriages and the platform. Kalhoro manages to pull the man to safety as a crowd gathers around them.
After the episode, while Kalhoro rested on a bench at the train station, a man came up to the cop, introduced himself by his first name, Haroon, and told him he had made a video of him.
“I got a bit upset as usually people only post negative comments about the police,” the constable said. “But when he showed me the video, I was pleasantly surprised because it was shot like a film showing me saving a man’s life.”
The video had changed his life, he added.
“For the last few days, people are visiting my father in my village to congratulate him on my achievement. My father is very happy,” Kalhoro said, saying he wished his mother too was alive to witness the event.
But the greatest joy, the cop said, had come from being recognized by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who shared the viral video on his Twitter account and commended the young constable for treating his duty as “sacred.”
یہ وہ مقام ہے جہاں فرض تقدیس سے ہمکنار ہوتا ہے۔ عوام الناس کی خدمت کے حوالے سے اس نوجوان سپاہی کے ہاں دکھائی دینے والا عزم قابلِ تحسین ہے۔pic.twitter.com/B1xozkj06a
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 19, 2021
In another tweet, Khan announced that he would confer a civil award on Kalhoro on March 23, Pakistan’s republic day, “for his outstanding performance of duty.”
ہم نے فرض شناسی کے کمال مظاہرے پر کانسٹیبل جمال کلہوڑو کو 23 مارچ کے یومِ پاکستان کے موقع پر اعزاز سے نوازنے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے۔ ”جس نے ایک انسان کی جان بچائی گویا اس نے پوری انسانیت کی جان بچائی“ —-
المائدہ [5:32]— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 20, 2021
“I am very excited,” Kalhoro said, “and waiting for March 23, for that great honor from my prime minister.”
