KARACHI: Sixteen wounded of the Quetta blast were shifted to Karachi and admitted to the Aga Khan University Hospital on Wednesday.

According to Rasool Bux Sarang, a media representative for the AKUH, so far 43 wounded are being treated at the orthopaedic and surgical unit of the hospital.

Most of the patients suffered injuries in the lower torso, Sarang said. “Some of them need subsequent surgeries. And although all of them are stable at the moment, problems might occur once they go for subsequent surgeries,” he added.

The wounded are between the ages of 22 and 53 years.

A suicide bombing at the Quetta’s Civil Hospital killed at least 70 people, mostly lawyers, and wounded 112 others.

Soon after the incident, the wounded were shifted to the Bolan Medical Hospital, Combined Military Hospital as well as the Civil Hospital. A lack of medical facilities at the hospitals and an increased number of patients forced the authorities to book a C-130 aircraft to move patients to Karachi.

Karachi Corps Commander Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar visited the AKUH on Wednesday and appreciated the resilience and patience of the victims and their families of the Quetta massacre.

Condolence meeting

The Pakistan Peoples Party on Wednesday organised a condolence reference and collective prayers for victims of the blast that killed scores of lawyers and other civilians in Quetta on Monday.

Sindh minister for food and parliamentary affairs and chairman of the PPP Sindh coordination committee Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said Sindh was the only province where terrorists had suffered defeat.

He gave credit for this to consolidated efforts of armed forces, law enforcement agencies and his party which ruled Sindh.

“The continued war against terror has eliminated a big chain of terrorist organisations in Sindh,” said Mr Khuhro. However, he added, there was a dire need to focus on Punjab, where “terrorists have strong cells [from where they] are carrying out terrorism across the country”.

The minister said the military operation Zarb-i-Azb against militant organisations had almost destroyed the militants’ network from the country. However, still the remaining factions of militants were targeting civilians and lawyers to claim their presence and strength but “they are fools as they do not know that not only Pakistan Army, but the whole nation is chasing them and that hunt will continue until elimination of the last terrorist”.

He assured the lawyers’ fraternity of full support and cooperation from the PPP.

PPP leader Rashid Rabbani, MPA Jawaid Nagori, special assistant to the CM Nadir Husain Khawaja, Habibuddin Junaidi, Waqar Mehdi, and PPP workers and people from different walks of life attended the reference.

Courts remain deserted

Courts across the city wore a deserted look on Wednesday as the legal fraternity did not attend legal proceedings for the third consecutive day in protest against the Quetta blast.

Hundreds of cases fixed at the City Courts and district courts in Malir could not be taken up for hearing since the jail authorities have not sent the undertrial prisoners to courts because of the lawyers’ boycott.

Pakistan Bar Council had announced a country-wide three-day strike to express solidarity with lawyers, media persons and other victims of the tragic suicide attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital.

The lawyers also stayed away from legal proceedings at the Sindh High Court and the judges only took up urgent matters in their chambers.

The legal work at the special courts, including antiterrorism and anti-corruption courts, was also affected since the lawyers did not turn in most of the cases.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2016