LAHORE, Jan 11: The site of Thursday’s blast, Ustad Allah Bux Road, remained sealed off on Friday. Police officials said the site was obscured from view by tents and barricades to collect more evidence.

Constable Rauf, deployed at the site, told Dawn that several of his colleagues felt let down by public reaction to the blasts. “To most people, cops dying doesn’t mean much – they shrug it off and say ‘who cares?’”

Rauf said the country would only be made secure when the public and media gave their support to the police and security services.

“The terrorists will stop at nothing to destroy this country, while we will sacrifice everything to save it,” he said. He did however, recognise the efforts made by some members of the public who came to show their solidarity with the police by laying wreaths at the GPO Chowk on Friday.

Constable Subhani, also on duty, said that most of the constables who died on Thursday were fresh recruits. “We were all classmates together and I lost some very good friends yesterday,” he said.

Subhani said the public and political parties should support the efforts of the police “because we can’t make any bigger sacrifice than what we’ve already made”.

Muhammed Naseem, uncle of slain constable Naeem Rahman, on the other hand, blamed the government for not doing enough to ensure security of its people.

“Musharraf has broken all the systems of governance and now is unable to provide basic security,” the grieving man said. “Unless things improve, more families will lose their sons, their fathers, their brothers and their husbands,” he added.

He described his nephew as being a devoutly religious man who worked very hard. Musharraf Ali, brother of constable Saleem, said his brother had sacrificed his life for his country and the family would try to remain strong.

He said because of overcrowding at the morgue, the family had to wait until midnight before they could claim the body.

“What else can Muslims do but remain patient and accept?” he said, adding that two of his brother’s four children were too young to understand that their father would not be coming home anymore.