KARACHI, April 12: Soon after the massive bomb blast that killed scores of people and left more than 100 injured at Nishtar Park on Tuesday, people took charge of the affairs in their own hands, forcing the law enforcement agencies to remain on the sidelines.
Emergency was declared at all major hospitals in the city and additional strength of doctors and paramedics was called in.
A visit to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Civil Hospital and Liaquat National Hospital on Tuesday night showed that hundreds of people, amid utter confusion and chaos, were regulating the affairs, both inside and outside the emergency wards of the three hospitals.
Upon arrival of any new casualty at the JPMC, people would repeatedly raise slogan of Ghulami-i-Rasool Main, Maut Bhi Qubool Hai.
The biggest of the crowds was witnessed at the JPMC as the people wanted to know about wellbeing or otherwise of their leaders, family members and friends amid a highly charged atmosphere. Police and other law-enforcement agencies preferred to stay away, although some senior police officials of the Clifton Town remained present at the JPMC from dusk to dawn.
Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil was escorted out of the JPMC from the back door of the Emergency Ward to avoid her appearance before the huge crowd of people at the front gate of the ward. At one stage, the wooden door of the Emergency Ward broke down due to the pressure from the crowd.
One of those injured in the blast was brought to the JPMC in a rickshaw and was rushed into the Emergency Ward.
As the number of bodies kept going up following the blast, the middle-level cadre of the Sunni Tehrik was seen suffering from an acute state of shock and grief.
The unidentified bodies were lined up for the purpose of identification while those injured were being provided emergency treatment and referred to different wards. At the same time, operations were also being performed.
The bodies were placed in the newly-constructed emergency block of the JPMC as its mortuary is too small to accommodate so many bodies.
Doctors at the JPMC said that during their service they had never witnessed such big body count. A similar situation was last witnessed in 1987 when there was a bomb blast at Bohri Bazaar, they recalled.
The mortuary of the Civil Hospital also appeared short of capacity as the bodies coming from Nishtar Park on Tuesday night had to be lined up on the floor of the mortuary to facilitate the process of identification.
Moving scenes were witnessed when a young boy, looking for his elder brother, found him among the bodies. He grabbed the body in shock and started crying “Bhai… Bhai…”. His friends accompanying consoled and separated him from the body. He was then taken away from the mortuary.
Perhaps the most chaotic situation was witnessed at the Civil Hospital’s Emergency Ward, which is already in a shabby condition with limited space available.
At Liaquat National Hospital, where bodies of the top ST leaders were brought, touching scenes were witnessed.
Though people had already got the news about the demise of Akram Qadri, Iftikhar Bhatti and Hafiz Taqi through media, they appeared anxious about the wellbeing of the ST chief, Abbas Qadri. In order to prevent strong reaction and shock, his death was apparently kept secret for hours by the authorities and the middle cadre of his party.
Later, Faisal Edhi disclosed Abbas Qadri’s death and his statement was aired by a private TV channel.
Two or three bodies remained unidentified at the LNH till late in the night but finally clues to their relatives were found through the phone numbers the deceased were keeping with them.
A scuffle between some doctors and attendants of some patients was also reported at the Civil Hospital.
Amid a situation where blood donation was badly needed, scores of donors were seen lined up at almost all the major hospitals.
Rizwan Edhi of the Edhi Foundation told Dawn that 28 bodies had arrived at the Edhi morgue, Sohrab Goth on Tuesday and 17 of them had been taken away by their claimants on Monday. Among the rest, he added, three were yet to be identified.
