KARACHI: “This is not a Shia-Sunni issue. It is a terrorist activity and even though the government knows who is behind this, nothing is being done about it,” said Maulana Ahsan Abbas as he leaned on his cane outside the Aga Khan University Hospital’s (AKUH) emergency on Saturday, waiting for word about his wounded brother, Ali Mohammad, who had gone to say his Friday prayers at the Markazi Imambargah Maula Ali near Lakhi Dar or Faujdar Gate in Shikarpur on the fateful day of the suicide bombing.

“The Imambargah is a sensitive spot but there is no security present there. Even if there had been one man at the entrance to frisk the people going inside, this tragedy could have been prevented,” he added.

“The blast shook the entire city and the moment I heard it, I instinctively knew it had to have happened at the Imambargah,” he said.

“We are six brothers and three sisters with no parents or uncles to take care of us. I am the eldest in my family but being a cripple can’t provide for my brothers and sisters. Ali is younger to me, he is 22, and was running a milk shop at Lakhi Dar, our only means of livelihood. He has a serious head injury and has not gained consciousness since the blast. Doctors say he won’t make it. I am just bracing myself for the unthinkable,” said the elder brother and broke down.

“My uncle, Syed Aijaz Hussain Shah, also has a serious head injury and was referred to the AKUH by the Hira Hospital in Sukkur after undergoing a minor surgery there,” said Farman Ali. “Doctors here aren’t very hopeful about him either,” he added with a lump forming in his throat.

Upstairs outside the operating theatres, some of the other injured in the attack, brought to the hospital in Karachi by a special C-130 flight during the night, were undergoing surgery or were in recovery while their relatives waited in the sitting areas.

“Since they were allowing just one attendant per patient in the plane, I accompanied my cousin Sanaullah here from Shikarpur. But his mother said she couldn’t bear to stay back there while he struggled for his life here, so she arrived in Karachi by bus this morning,” said Ghulam Hussain. “He has ball bearings lodged in his arms, legs, chest and one eye. There is a blood clot behind his eye now and bleeding that wouldn’t stop from around that area that the doctors are concerned about,” he added.

“The Imambargah is the biggest one in Shikarpur. On Fridays a jamaat of more than 700 people gathers there. And my son was one of the people praying there. He goes to pray there every Friday,” said Ghulam Fatima Bibi, the mother.

“Sanaullah is my eldest son. I had him after many prayers seven years after my marriage. I have been crying to my Allah to spare him since yesterday. I won’t drink a sip of water until he opens his eyes and calls out to me,” she wept, wiping away her tears with her chador.

“We have seen three to four dead bodies coming out of every other house as a result of this attack,” said Mahjabeen, who was there for her nephew Kashif Ali. “His own mother is in Larkana with Kashif’s son who has a leg injury which is being taken care of in hospital there so I came here to care for Kashif when he was referred to the AKUH for his punctured kidney,” said the aunt.

“Kashif’s two little boys, four-year-old Ali Raza and two-and-half-year-old Mohammad Hassan were with him at the time. And Kashif himself, who sells tasbeeh, imamzamin, etc, outside the Imambargah, was fasting at the time. Now after gaining consciousness, even in his stupor, he keeps asking about his children here. And there in Larkana his mother has been calling me non-stop wanting to know about him. I just sneaked into recovery to let her hear his voice. He only mumbled a weak ‘hello’ and hearing it she started crying. She was sure he was dead until then,” the aunt smiled through her own tears.

According to an AKU spokesman, 14 seriously injured patients have been flown to Karachi for treatment at the hospital. “Thirteen of them are adult males while the 14th is a boy,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 1st, 2015

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