Toll rises: Man injured in katcheri attack dies

Chaudhry Ahmed, 50, was one of 29 people injured in gun-and-bomb attack on district courts in Sector F-8, Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD:

Although he was shot and seriously injured, he managed to inform his family about the injuries he had sustained and tell them which hospital he was being taken to. But it turned out to be the last time they would hear his voice.

Chaudhry Maqsood Ahmed, 50, was one of the 29 people injured in the gun-and-bomb attack on the district courts in Sector F-8 on Monday. After three days of fighting for life in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Ahmed died on Thursday.

Ahmed, who was the general manager of Hill View Hotel, had been to the court to attend judicial proceedings with his lawyers. He was one of the victims of the shooting spree that kicked off the carnage on that fateful day.

“He was shot in the abdomen, which damaged an artery and his small intestine,” said Prof Javed Akram Vice-Chancellor Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).

Ahmed was taken directly to the operation theatre, but showed no signs of improvement after being treated.

Prof Akram said that Ahmed was on a ventilator at the ICU since then, and died at 2:45pm on Thursday. Naseem, one of Ahmed’s colleagues, said “He was sitting in his lawyer’s chamber when the attackers barged into the room and started indiscriminate firing.”

Naseem described his late colleague as a caring and kind person. “He was very supportive, cooperative and respected all his colleagues, irrespective of their positions, status or creed.”

Ahmed leaves behind a wife, a son and two daughters. He was laid to rest in the H-11 graveyard.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2014.