Transitions: BDS official succumbs to his injuries

The officer had been injured when one of the 40 hand grenades he was defusing, detonated

HYDERABAD:

The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) officer, Saleem Vistro, who was critically injured in an explosion while defusing a bomb, succumbed to his wounds at a hospital in Karachi on Wednesday. According to the officer's family, the injuries to his forehead and left hand proved fatal.

Vistro, 48, was referred to Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, from Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, on Tuesday. He was brought in a serious condition from Tando Allahyar district where he had been attempting to defuse hand grenades at the A-Section police station when one of the 40 grenades blew up.

Vistro had suffered critical injuries to his hands. His head, chest and legs were also slightly injured. Three fingers and a large part of his left hand were blown up in the blast. The upper-half part of the thumb in the right hand was also severed, according to Dr Asad, who examined him at Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, on Tuesday.

The cache was seized during a raid at the residence of a nationalist party's worker on October 16. The Anti-Terrorism Court, on October 24, had directed the police to defuse the grenades which were lying in the A-Section police station.



The deceased officer's nephew, Sarfaraz Vistro, who is a journalist, said that his uncle's forehead was also severely injured. "The time it took to shift him from Tando Allahyar to Hyderabad and then to Karachi decreased his chances of survival."

Vistro was brought to Hyderabad without having been given any first aid in Tando Allahyar. He was conscious and kept screaming in the hospital's surgical ward that he could not bear the pain anymore. He was a resident of Hala Naka, Hyderabad. His funeral prayers were offered after Namaz-e-Isha at the Police Headquarters in Hyderabad and he was laid to rest in the Cantonment Graveyard. He is survived by four daughters and his wife.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2014.