“When I held the Kalashnikov of the suicide bomber and said that we are innocent, why are you killing us, there was no remorse in his eyes,” Muhammad Arshad told BBC Urdu.

A resident of Bara Tehsil in Khyber Agency, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Arshad snatched a suicide bomber’s gun during an attack on a Tehsil building on July 20. He has been recommended by the district administration for a Civil Award.

Three policemen were killed and 11 people were injured in the attack.

The building hosts major offices of district administration including the police station and CTD offices. The KP police have said that the target of the attackers was the police station.

Arshad runs a printing press shop in the Bara bazaar, distanced around 12 kilometres from Peshawar.

He was well known to the policemen as he would often go to the police station in Tehsil Building for work. His shop was once near the police station; however, he later changed the location of his shop.

On the fateful day, Arshad was scheduled to go to the police station with his cousin for work. When his cousin did not arrive that morning, he left for the police station alone.

“I parked my bike across the street at a friend’s shop and walked towards the building, but it was pretty rough there that day. They were not allowing any unknown person to enter,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention that a threat alert was issued on July 13 by the intelligence agencies of an attack on the Tehsil Building of Bara.

Arshad went to the head constable’s office located next to the gate inside the police station.

“The head constable was my friend. When I told him about my work, he took me to another room next door,” he said.

It was around 11am when an armed person opened fire after constable Muhammad Tayyab posted at the gate warned him for trying to enter through the main gate of the building.

“We just arrived in the other room when suddenly we heard the sounds of firing,” Arshad recalled. The room in which Arshad was present was not far from the gate.

“It seemed that firing was taking place in the room we were in. I tried to look out of the window but could not understand anything,” he said.

At that moment, an armed man entered the room and fired a burst with an automatic rifle and left, he added.

Arshad was shot in the arm and leg and was continuously bleeding. “I thought that something should be done. Everyone was lying down”, he said.

“I was just getting up when he [the attacker] came in again. He was holding a Kalashnikov in his hand. A large number of magazines were tied to the body,” he added.

“I thought of my little daughters, I remembered the rest of the family, but then suddenly everything went out of my mind and the thought dominated that even if I had to die, I had to do something”.

Arshad stood up and grab the Kalashnikov of the attacker and after three to four seconds, he snatched the Kalashnikov.

“During our fight, I said to him in Pashto, ‘Why are you killing us, we are innocent, why are you killing us’ but there was no such thing as pity in his eyes,” he stated.

Seeing the attacker trying to pull something out through his right hand, Arshad ran towards the inner building of the police station.

“I thought he was pulling out the button of the suicide bomb. While I was running, another assailant fired from behind which hit me in the back but it did not do much damage,” said Arshad.

“I ran from there but I thought that he [the attacker] will not be able to target the people in the room with the gun. He will not be able to take anyone, hostage,” he added.

Arshad feared that policemen would consider him an attacker. But luckily, a familiar policeman took him to another room.

As soon as they entered the room, they heard a loud explosion. Arshad said that it was his mobile phone that exploded due to the bullets, while the policemen thought it was a hand grenade explosion.

At the same time, the suicide bomber also blew himself up.

“The suicide blast and the explosion of my mobile phone happened at the same time,” he said.

After the attack, Arshad informed his younger brother through a borrowed mobile phone that he was injured.

“I do not know whose mobile it was. I called my younger brother that there has been an attack and I have been shot, I am lying in Tehsil police station, come quickly.”