KARACHI, Sept 25: Emotional scenes were witnessed at Civil Hospital on Wednesday when the dead and injured were brought there from Rimpa Plaza.
Six dead bodies and two injured men were brought to Civil Hospital from the office of the Idara Amn-o-Insaaf, an NGO, situated on the third floor of the multi-storey building Rimpa Plaza on M. A. Jinnah Road, following an armed attack carried out by unidentified persons.
The two injured men, Edwin Foster, aged 25, coordinator, and Robin Sharif, aged 19, librarian, were admitted to the casualty ward which was thronged by their female relations.
Edwin Foster died in less than half an hour after he was admitted to the casualty ward, pushing the death toll in the attack to seven.
His 60-year-old mother, Saleema, and other relations were present. She cried uncontrollably when her son died. Other female members of the family present there also broke into tears.
Saleema told Dawn: “My husband died 11 months ago, and today my son has left me,” she said while crying.
When Edwin’s body was being taken to the mortuary, emotion-charged relations got hold of the body and tried to take it home. The enraged relatives took out the body from the ambulance. However, soon they cooled down and the body was shifted to the morgue.
Earlier, Robin Sharif was shifted to the Neurology Ward from Casualty where he later fell unconscious.
Waseem, a small brother of Robin Sharif, told Dawn that his older brother was working as a librarian at the Idara. He lived in Moosa Colony and was usually at his office around 8:30am. He had no enmity with anyone, a grief-stricken Waseem said.
Doctors described Robin Sharif’s condition as serious and said a bullet had grazed his head bringing the brain matter a little bit out.
Later, in the evening he was shifted to Aga Khan Hospital.
Labour legal assistant of the Idara Rahim Bakhsh Azad, who informed police of the incident, told this reporter at Civil Hospital that he reached office around 10:10am.
He said he knocked on the door several times but there was no response from inside. After some time Robin Prian Datta, the only survivor, who was blind- folded, opened the door and let him in. He fainted immediately thereafter.
Mr Azad, associated with the Idara for the past three years, removed tapes from the mouths of two injured men and informed police.
He said Robin Sharif had gone out to buy milk, and when he returned the assailants also tied him up and opened fire.
Mr Azad told Dawn that the body of Mushtaq Roshan, the cashier, was found, tied to a chair, in the washroom of the office.
Rukhsana Paul, wife of one of the dead men Aslam Martin, aged 45, out-reach officer, was also seen wailing sitting outside the morgue.
A friend of Aslam’s told Dawn at Civil Hospital that a few days back Aslam had told him about his plans to emigrate to Australia and he had already obtained the visa.
KARACHI, Sept 25: Emotional scenes were witnessed at Civil Hospital on Wednesday when the dead and injured were brought there from Rimpa Plaza.
