KARACHI, Nov 21: Moving scenes were witnessed at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the dead and the wounded, including a four-year-old child, were brought after the twin blasts outside an Imambargah in Orangi Town on Wednesday.

It was still unclear whether the first blast outside the Imambargah Haider-i-Karrar in Orangi Town No 5 was carried out by a suicide bomber or a result of some planted device. However, the second blast, which took place after one hour to the first blast at the same place, was said to have been caused by an improvised explosives device (IED).

Two persons were killed and over a dozen others, including journalists, rescue workers and law-enforcers, were injured in the twin blasts.

At the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, a four-year-old boy, Shafay, was lying in bed with white bandage around his head. He was passing through the area along with his father when the first blast took place.

A volunteer of the Chippa rescue service was also under treatment at the health facility. “I was present near a puncture shop close to the Imambargah when the second blast took place. I fell down with the impact of the blast and became unconscious,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, 32.

Another volunteer of the same rescue service, Ahmed Ali, was referred to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment due to the seriousness of his injuries.

Among the injured was a young cameraman of a private television channel. Hasnain Bilgrami, 29, was under treatment in the emergency ward of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. “I was standing near the tyre shop and recording footage of the scene when I was knocked out by the impact of the second blast,” he said. “I was not able to hear for sometime…there was smoke all around when I regained consciousness.”

A rickshaw driver, Mujahid, was also badly wounded in the blast. A resident of Liaquatabad, he said he had gone to Orangi Town No 5 to meet his sister and got injured in the blast.

Many wounded persons were referred to the JPMC and the Aga Khan University Hospital for further treatment.

Following the first blast, a state of emergency was declared at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and the police were deployed outside the health facility to avert any untoward incident.

The bodies of two men who had died as a result of the first blast were also lying in the mortuary of the hospital.

Hospital sources told Dawn that only one body was intact and clearly identifiable. The victim was identified as Mohammad Arsalan, who had an oil shop located close to the Imambargah.

However, the head and upper torso of the second body had been blown off in the blast. Nevertheless, the remains were identified as those of Arshad, the owner of the puncture shop close to the Imambargah, by his brother Shahbaz by looking at his feet and some pieces of clothes on his body.

The victim Arshad also had a auto-spare parts shop in the area.

“We have a piece of the rear portion of a human skull along with some other parts, which are hard to identify at this point in time,” said a doctor at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Meanwhile, DIG-West Javed Odho requested the media not to gather at the crime scene and to allow the law-enforcement agencies to carry out their work.

He said that there was no reason for the presence of such a large number of ambulances at the scene of crime. The presence of unwanted persons at the crime scene created further risks, he added.

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