KARACHI: Shakeel Ahmed, one of the two policemen killed in the line of duty in Azizabad, has left behind a widow, who is fighting cancer, and seven daughters and a son to mourn his death, a nephew of the slain constable told Dawn outside the Edhi morgue on Saturday evening.

With tears in his eyes, Syed Junaid was one of the handful of people gathered outside the morgue in Sohrab Goth where the bodies were brought from hospital after a post-mortem examination.

He said: “Everyone has been asking him if the officials were wearing protective gear, but what difference would it have made had they been wearing bulletproof vests or not. The fact of the matter is they were shot in the head.

“My uncle is dead. His seven daughters and only son have been orphaned. His son is the youngest of his eight children, he is only 17. Is this an age to carry the burden of six sisters and a sick mother?” Junaid said, adding that only one of his daughters was married while another daughter was to be married next month.

“This is disaster for the family,” he said.

When the officials gathered there were asked about the other traffic constable, Mohammad Akram, who also lost his life in the attack, they said he originally hailed from Abbottabad but had settled in Karachi a few years back.

“One of his relatives came to store his body at the Edhi morgue here and left soon afterwards,” a policeman told Dawn. “We’ve heard that the funeral will take place on Sunday morning,” he added.

Meanwhile, at Shakeel Ahmed’s home in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, there were six to seven men gathered under the yellow tent quickly put up in the apartment parking lot. The victim’s young son, Ayaz, was being consoled by a few neighbourhood boys of his age. A bearded gentleman, who identified himself as Shakeel Ahmed’s son-in-law, said they were devastated at the loss but wanted to be left alone. “It is our personal loss, one that we are trying to deal with as much grace as we can. So please leave us alone,” he requested the media.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2016