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| February 6, 2003 | Thursday | Zul Hijjah 4,1423 |
14 blast victims fighting for life
SIALKOT, Feb 5: The condition of the 14 people, injured in containers blast here, was stated to be critical at Sambrial, Daska, Sialkot and Lahore hospitals on Wednesday.
Three schoolchildren and a Customs inspector were among the 17 people killed and 35 others were injured on Tuesday in a heavy explosion in two containers at the Sialkot dryport.
Meanwhile, all those killed in the blast were laid to rest on Wednesday.
Seven identified people were laid to rest at Lahore, Sambrial, Zafarwali (Daska), Dadowal and Kala Dev (Jhelum) graveyards. The unidentified bodies were buried by NGOs under the supervision of the district government at local graveyards.
The postmortem on the victims was conducted at the Sialkot dryport late on Tuesday night.
During their visit to the dryport, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and IG Police Syed Masud Shah ruled out the possibility of sabotage or terrorism behind the blast.
The responsibility of the blast has yet to be fixed. Everyone has been awaiting the findings by the intelligence agencies. However, police registered a case against Blue Apple International (Pvt) Ltd, a firm of Sialkot which had imported the containers from Dubai and China.
The containers reached Sialkot dryport from Dubai through Karachi in 15 days. An employee of a Sambrial-based customs clearing agency Lucky Star, Khahil Ahmad, was among the people seriously injured in the blast.
Sialkot DCO Capt Zahid Saeed (retired) told newsmen that investigations were under way.
The management of Sialkot dryport has ruled out the involvement of any of its officials or employees in the blast.
“There is no negligence on the part of dryport and Customs department’s officials or employees,” Sialkot Dryport Trust chairman Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf, general manger Saleem Sheikh and former chairman Muhammad Siddiq Lone said.
Speaking at a press conference, they said that it had been decided to evolve new foolproof security plan in line with international standard. All out efforts would be made to avert any such incident in future.
They said that the routine import and export activities had been resumed at the dryport.
Mr Lone alleged that the Sambrial police were attempting to change the nature of the case.
Saleem Sheikh said that according to the documents submitted by the Blue Apple International, the containers had no banned items.
He said that Rs4.5 million worth items were destroyed in the blast and the dryport suffered from a property loss of Rs350,000.
The Sialkot Dryport’s Board of Trustees, at an emergent meeting, expressed grave concern over the tragedy. It also decided to announce compensation for the grieved families.
Arrangements would also be made to assess the damage to the property adjacent to the dryport.
APP ADDS: A 17-year-old employee of a customs clearnce company at the Sialkot Dryport is in critical condition at an ICU in the Mayo Hospital in Lahore.
Haseeb Ahsan of Thokar Niaz Baig had sustained multiple injuries on his face and limbs in Tuesday’s blast. His uncle quoted doctors as saying that the boy’s condition was very critical.
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