In honour of his heroism and tremendous sacrifice he presented to safeguard other people, the Vatican graced a Pakistani boy called Akash Bashir with the ‘Servant of God’ title posthumously.
Akash Bashir, a lay Catholic and former student of Don Bosco Technical Institute of Lahore, put down his life while preventing a suicide bomber from entering a packed church in 2015, Vatican News said.
In a statement, Vicar General of the church, Father Francis Gulzar said, “A magnificent day for the Catholic Church in Pakistan. Akash volunteered his life as a sacrifice to save the lives of the Christian community at St. John’s Catholic Church, Youhanabad, Lahore.”
Born on 22 June 1994 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera, Akash died at 20, on March 15, 2015.
The attacks
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside St. John’s Catholic Church and the adjoining Christ Church of the Church of Pakistan in Lahore on March 15, 2015. 17 individuals were murdered and over 70 received injuries in the attacks.
