ON a bright sunny morning on April 10, 1988, an explosion rocked Rawalpindi. A mushroom cloud of black smoke bellowed upon thousands of feet into the sky, followed by an incessant rain of rockets and projectiles that continued for the whole day. The flying rockets hit unsuspecting people several kilometres away from the scene of fire in an ammunition depot in Faizabad at the junction of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Not many people were even aware that an ammunition depot existed in the midst of a densely populated locality. Many suspected that Pakistan had been attacked. Others suspected an accident at one of the nuclear installations. The blasts continued at almost regular intervals.

When the initial salvo died down, the sound of secondary blasts could be heard for the next several days. There was chaos all around. All at once the city roads and streets were littered with the dead and the dying.

Official estimates put the dead at about 100 and over 1,000 injured. Unofficial count placed the dead at several hundreds. The damage would have been worse if a large number of rockets that fell several kilometers had also exploded. These rockets did not explode just because they were not fused. Initial official reaction said the blast was caused by an act of sabotage.

Later, however, it was claimed that the explosion had been caused by an accident. People of the twin cities still remember that deadly blast even after the passing of 25 years.

OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI     Karachi