KARACHI, Jan 9: Lal Mohammad lost 22 members of his family in Thursday night’s inferno that claimed 40 lives in North Karachi’s Sector 5-L.

A hysterical Lal Mohammad was being consoled by friends during the burial, which was being performed at the Shah Mohammad graveyard in North Karachi.

Wailing in Seraiki, Lal Mohammad questioned the purpose of his life following the loss of his family: “What will I do? All of my family members are gone now …”

Lal kept wailing throughout the burial. “If I knew this would happen, I would have asked my family to sleep on the road,” he added.

Lal lost his wife and five children, his father Karim Buksh and mother Zubaida, and three brothers – Rafiq, Mukhtar and Bashir – along with their wives and children.

Kaleem, son of Mukhtar, who survived the fire said that he woke up from the warmth of the fire to see the burning pushcart of his father. “I grabbed my younger brother Nadeem and went for my parents, but their room was up in flames and I couldn’t enter it, so I rushed out to save our lives,” Kaleem, who works as a lab technician, recalled.

Lal Mohammad was not alone in his grief as there were many others who lost more than one family member. Ranjhan lost his eight-year-old son Saeed. He also broke down when the surviving family members were called to attend the funeral prayers, which were held in an open ground located behind the scene of Thursday night’s tragedy.

Supported by his friends, Ranjhan was being consoled by the area women, who were trying to calm him down. In reply to a question about how the fire broke out, a weeping Ranjhan expressed his ignorance over the cause of the fire, simply saying that “there were huge flames everywhere.”

However, as the ambulances that contained the bodies of the victims began to line up, the female survivors of the tragedy also lost their nerve. Perhaps due to the precarious condition of the bodies, instead of taking them out for the funeral prayers, the ambulances were lined up for the prayers.

There was a slight delay in the funeral prayers as some members of the Seraiki community wanted the burials to be postponed for a day. They were taken to the sector office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement where the issue was sorted out.

Shortly after, the funeral prayers were offered and ambulances were dispatched for burial.

Since the bodies were badly charred and were beyond recognition, it was decided that they would be buried in Karachi. Almost all of the dead belonged to Punjab’s district Rahim Yar Khan. Some survivors of the blaze did express their wish for the burials to take place in their hometown, however. Some women from the neighbourhood told the media that almost all the females residing in the ill-fated plot used to work as domestic help.