KARACHI: Two sisters — 54-year-old Qamar Jahan and 52-year-old Sarwar Jahan — left Karachi for Lahore on Oct 28 last week, with Ms Qamar’s eldest daughter and her five grandchildren. The idea was to spend some quality time with family. So after locking up their home in Saudabad, Malir, the family went by train on the trip.

Kiran Nauman, Qamar Jahan’s daughter-in-law-to-be, said she got a call from her mother-in-law from Lahore on Sunday. With a small copy of the Quran in her hands, Kiran was the only one who appeared willing to speak about the incident on Wednesday.

“She called me in the morning to inform us that they had just visited Data Darbar and were on their way to the Wagah border ceremony [at the Wagah border parade ground, where flag-lowering ceremony takes place daily]. She really wanted to get out of the city and go sightseeing. This was the only vacation, a small one actually, that she had in two years. So, she took all the children, her eldest daughter and her sister along with her to Lahore,” she said.

Kiran and the rest of her family saw the news of the suicide attack at the entrance to the Wagah border parade venue while they were having dinner. “We lost no time in calling on her mobile phone but there was no response. Then we waited for any news to come from there,” she added.

The ceremony had almost finished and both Ms Qamar and Ms Sarwar had asked the children to go out and wait in the parking lot. One of them, 12-year-old Alizeh, stayed back with her mother Sadia Imran. After a while, all four of them made their way out of the ground when the blast occurred. Ms Qamar’s eldest daughter, Sadia Imran, and Alizeh got severe injuries on their legs, while both the sisters died on the spot.

“Apart from a sharp wound on their heads, they had no other injuries, which most of us found strange,” said Kiran. “Months ago, we saw how families of the victims of the Karachi Airport attack were burned to death. We said are grateful that at least we got to see the bodies of our relatives.”

The five children and Ms Qamar’s eldest daughter, Sadia Imran, are the only survivors.

But at the moment, both Sadia and her daughter Alizeh are undergoing leg surgery in Lahore. “I spoke to Sadia on the phone. She said as soon as the blast occurred, somebody fell on her back making her fall flat on her face on the concrete. Her legs remained under the body for a while, until people who had just minutes before left the venue came back to help victims,” she added.

Only a day before, six bodies were flown back to Karachi. Out of them, four reached the city with the help of government officials while two of them were flown in by the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation.

The family seemed in haste to finish the conversation about the deceased.

Sensing the awkwardness, Kiran said: “Yesterday, we were hounded by cameramen who came with reporters. They just ordered us to look left, look right, or down in our lap. We felt insulted.” Just then, her mother, who had been listening to the conversation, said that, “In how many ways can we answer the question as to how we felt on seeing the blood-splattered bodies of our loved ones?”

In Shadman Town, Sakhi Hassan, Fehmeed-ud-Din asked his family to not let any media person inside their house because he didn’t want photographers to take pictures of the mourners. “We cannot let our tragedy become a way of entertainment for others. There’s a limit to everything, I feel. My nephew, Mohammad Saiq, got killed in the incident,” he said while speaking to Dawn.

“He had gone to Lahore as part of his vacation and informed us on Sunday afternoon that he reached the parade ground at the Wagah border crossing.”

Mr Fehmeed said that Saiq was quite happy to leave for a vacation. “Over here, we have the same kind of activities. Because of the continuing violence we don’t let our children go out much. Lahore seemed a safer option to us. But I am shocked. There’s no way of running away from this violence until the state owns up to the mistakes it continues to make.”

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2014