Bill Ryan
3rd June 2018, 19:35
Waleed Khan was just 12 when, miraculously — the only word to use — he survived a terrorist attack in Peshawar, Pakistan which killed 135 of his school friends and 20 teachers.
Waleed was shot 8 times: 6 times in the face and head. Rescuers and emergency medics assumed he was dead.
Indeed, it seems impossible he could have survived. Even one of the terrorists, seeing he was somehow still alive, had come back to shoot him in the face yet again.
But now, 4 years later and fully recovered after years of surgery, he's a sporting talent, now at school in Birmingham where he excels at cricket, handball, swimming and hockey.
In this podcast he told his story to BBC's usually cheery cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, who was so lost for words he barely knew what to say. It's an almost unbelievable and extremely moving, inspiring story.
Do listen. At 55 mins, it may be a little overlong. But just the first section of it is enough to be astonished at what he endured — and the life decisions he made.
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-low/proto/http/vpid/p068xvr4.mp3
Waleed was shot 8 times: 6 times in the face and head. Rescuers and emergency medics assumed he was dead.
Indeed, it seems impossible he could have survived. Even one of the terrorists, seeing he was somehow still alive, had come back to shoot him in the face yet again.
But now, 4 years later and fully recovered after years of surgery, he's a sporting talent, now at school in Birmingham where he excels at cricket, handball, swimming and hockey.
In this podcast he told his story to BBC's usually cheery cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, who was so lost for words he barely knew what to say. It's an almost unbelievable and extremely moving, inspiring story.
Do listen. At 55 mins, it may be a little overlong. But just the first section of it is enough to be astonished at what he endured — and the life decisions he made.
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/5/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-low/proto/http/vpid/p068xvr4.mp3