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| October 15, 2005 | Saturday | Ramzan 10, 1426 |
Toll now 48 as hope for survivors dims: Margalla Tower tragedy
ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Hope began to fade away Friday at the site of collapsed Margalla Towers multi-storey building as there was no survivor for third day in a row. The last survivors, two women, were brought out of the rubble on Tuesday evening.
Till Thursday, rescue workers were hopeful that there might be some four to five possible survivors. On Friday only half a dozen dead bodies were recovered from the debris, taking the death toll to 48. Nine bodies remained unidentified.
Still some 33 people are reported missing. A total of 88 injured have been recovered since the rescue operation started on Saturday (October 8).
On Friday, drilling and digging went on in full force and the rubble rained down, creating clouds of dust, diesel and smoke.
The emotionally and physically drained relatives and friends of people, still trapped inside the collapsed building, are now beginning to despair. They no longer expect a miracle while a few may still be hoping for it. Now their prayer is that at least bodies of their loved ones are recovered so that they can be given a proper burial. It is important for the families of the victims to get a sense of closure.
Some close relatives of those trapped inside put on gloves, face masks and helmets to join rescue workers. One of them was Pakistan’s ambassador to Libya, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Iqbal Haider who had lost his 18 year old son in this tragedy. Ambassador Haider was now there looking for his elder brother Major (retd) Mehboob Haider who was also on the eighth floor when the building collapsed.
Some desperate family members of the victims began to lose patience even with officials of the army engineering corps overseeing the search and rescue operation. They were critical of what some called a callous and painfully surgical approach.
It seems the men in Khaki have been very inconvenienced by this whole operation and are in a hurry to have the rubble cleared, said an agitated relative of a victim.
There were also complaints about lack of coordination and poor command and control of the whole rescue operation.
Army officials on the other hand complained that relatives of the people trapped inside the building were not cooperating and were thus making their job difficult. They want the machines to be stopped every few minutes to search inside, said a member of the engineering corps. He pointed out that machines were mobilized only after intensive probes by themselves and the British team indicated no sign of movement or life beneath the colossal debris.
“We are trying our best, exercising full caution and will continue the search operation till the very last, was the assurance held out by Col. Naseem Khan.
It is believed that people trapped under the debris can survive up to ten days. It has happened in India and Thailand.
Three American USAID structural engineers who showed up on Thursday and given fresh hope to the aggrieved were not seen on Friday. Apparently one of them had worked on the Pentagon debris following the 9/11 terror attacks in Washington and New York.
Reportedly they had suggested that the concrete slabs be lifted with cranes instead of cutting through the concrete that could further compress the collapsed building.
However, one official of the FWO engineering corps told this Correspondent later that there was nothing new the Americans had come up with and they had merely suggested what was already being done.
In the afternoon when the rubble-clearing operation was in full swing two men were suddenly spotted on the 12th floor of the adjoining Margalla Towers block. They had got there on a crane to remove personal belongings and valuables from an apartment there. This alerted the army men and they frantically signalled the men to come down. Later, it transpired that it was on orders of an Assistant Commissioner that those men were risking their lives.
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