There is a reason why Mrs Safdar Khan remembers the dates of June 8 and Nov 21, 2014.

The first one marks the day when her life was shattered: her elder son, Inayatullah, was found among the seven cargo company workers who had burned to death in a cold room 26 hours after they took refuge in it when Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport came under a terrorist attack.

The reason for remembering the second date was in her lap when she greeted me at her home in the poor neighbourhood of Khokhrapar No 2 ½ in Malir: this was her six-month-old grandson Rohan, born five months after his father’s death.

“June 8 almost killed me and Nov 21 gave me a reason to live on,” she said. “Those 36 hours were like doomsday,” she added, recalling the terrible time she, her daughter-in-law, younger son and two little granddaughters spent outside the airport to hear any news about Inayatullah. He and six other Gerry’s Dnata employees were trapped in the cold room when militants launched an audacious attack on Terminal One.

Nearly 100 rescue personnel, including firefighters, battled for 36 hours to save the workers, but only their charred remains could be retrieved. Inayatullah was recognised only through his company’s identity card he wore around his neck.

Read: TTP claims attack on Karachi airport

The funerals and burials are long over, but the miseries of the families of the victims aren’t.

Mrs Khan smiled gently when I asked her if she had received any compensation from the government, which was accused of negligence as rescue agencies and institutions moved only after the families of the trapped workers staged a protest and blocked a main road, forcing the authorities to listen to them.

“We got compensation only from my son’s company [Gerry’s Dnata] and that too after several months,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Mrs Khan is not alone in living with such excruciating pain and grief.

Just half-a-kilometre from Inayatullah’s place is the home of another victim of the tragedy, Nabeel Ahmed, in a locality called Laal Quarters — a housing society developed by the government in the 1960s. The information shared by his family is even more horrifying.

“Till 4:30am on the morning of June 9, we had been in touch with Nabeel Bhai over the mobile phone,” his younger sister said. She turned down my request to share a photograph of her deceased brother or the family, saying “It would only reopen our wounds if any of them appears in a newspaper.”

“Nothing will happen to those who are responsible for the negligence,” she observed. “Investigation, action against those responsible and compensation to the families were the words of government ministers which we heard after every hour in the news bulletins. But everything fizzled out in a few days.”

Armed with assault rifles, rocket launchers, hand grenades and suicide vests, at least 10 militants attacked Terminal One of Karachi airport on the evening of June 8 last year. More than 25 people, including Airport Security Force commandos, Pakistan International Airline employees and staff members of the Civil Aviation Authority, were killed in a gunfight between militants and the security forces that lasted several hours, which left all the attackers dead. A significant loss to the exchequer was a consequence of the attack as five aircraft were damaged and imported goods and items to be exported, stored in two warehouses, were reduced to ashes.

Muhammad Ali witnessed all that devastation. Like Inayatullah and Nabeel, he was also at the wrong place at the wrong time, but he was lucky to survive. A resident of Malir’s Gharibabad, the 43-year-old driver with a private airport services company was able to react promptly enough to live.

“When we first heard gunfire, we ignored it,” he said as we sat at a roadside teashop near his home. “But consistent firing convinced me and my colleague that it was no longer safe. As we ran towards the exit, someone told us that the terminal was under attack. As the firing intensified, we crawled to a safer place and finally got out after half an hour of struggle.”

By the time he came out, huge flames had engulfed the warehouse where he had been at the time of the attack. Ali showed me scars of wounds on his elbows which are still visible.

“I was terrified after that incident, so was my family,” he said. “The situation that emerged after the attack was not encouraging either. Security was tightened, but only to harass airport workers and people visiting the airport. I finally changed my job in September, but still get the shivers when I pass through the airport area.”

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2015

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