Left in tatters: Shabqadar grieves loss of generations

Tehsil hospital unable to provide even most basic treatment; many victims shifted to LRH

SHABQADAR/PESHAWAR:

Shabqadar seems to be the place militants target when avenging the death of their celebrated figures and Monday was no exception as a suicide bomb ripped through a court premises.

This attack in the vicinity of Shabqadar Bazaar was to take revenge for the hanging of Salman Taseer’s convicted killer Mumtaz Qadri in Rawalpindi, while years ago, around 80 people, mostly FC personnel, were killed in 2011 by extremist elements out for blood after the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

As is usually the case, security personnel, policemen and innocent citizens are the ones paying the ultimate price. Two policemen, including Head Constable Naseemullah and Constable Yameen, were among the dead.

Among the others who lost their lives in the devastating attack was Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad graduate and marble dealer Tahirullah. Also, the family of an elderly, Firasat Bibi, was left devastated when she, her five-year-old granddaughter Asma (in some records identified as Uzma) from Hassan Garhi, Peshawar and grandson Talha were killed. All of them were in court to register a house the woman bought in the area.

Talha had been handed over to Firasat Bibi by his grandfather just moments before the blast took place.

A third child was also slain in this attack. As many as seven women fell victim to the terrorist attack; three of them elderly. Misal Pari, Noorul Huda, Basaria, and Bakhtmal were identified as some of the deceased women.

Hell on earth

Lawyer Yusaf Ali and his two sons Shadab, 8, and Shah Jalal, 10, were among those critically injured, while his daughter Haya, 6, is missing. For the families of Yusaf and Firasat Begum, the day bore a resemblance to doomsday.

When the blast was first heard, people assumed it was a blown tyre. However, when flames started rising from the area of the blast, it was suddenly all too clear that something far more serious had occurred.

It was pickup and Qinqi drivers who rushed the injured and the dead to hospitals, while Shabqadar Tehsil Municipal Administration’s fire brigade arrived to extinguish the blazing inferno.

Senior minister Sikandar Khan Sherpao was the first politician to reach the site, within 20 minutes and before rescue work officially started. The Charsadda district nazim and tehsil nazim personally monitored the situation.

Sherpao said the incident was a disaster and he expressed his solidarity with the victims.

Rage against the machine

Later, Minister for Health Shahram Tarakai visited Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar and was greeted by protest.

He and other officials were besieged by demonstrators who slammed the government for its failure to provide health facilities – their absence highlighted at a time when they were needed most. They asked why staffers were getting salaries from the hospital in their area and working elsewhere. The angry demonstrators pointed out there were no basic health facilities like x-rays, clinical tests or lifesaving drugs.

Tarakai was later ushered out of the clutches of the mob after a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA waved his pistol at the protesters, while the high-ranking health officials retreated to rooms in the hospital. The enraged crowd also broke glass doors at the medical facility.

Later at LRH, while replying to a question on the lack of facilities at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar, Tarakai said doctors were reluctant to work in far-off areas. He told The Express Tribune, “But now the provincial government has hired specialists on attractive packages” which meant doctors would be more willing to work outside Peshawar.

Shifted to LRH

With Shabqadar unable to handle the state of emergency, at least 29 people, including four bodies, were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. One woman was among the dead. LRH media officials stated four of the injured brought to their hospital were in critical condition.

Three children were among the injured. One of the three women being tended to at the medical facility was a policewoman.

“I was standing inside the gate. The moment militants targeted police personnel deployed at the main gate, we retaliated,” constable Abdul Mabood told The Express Tribune. “I could see only two suspects; [in that split second] everyone was in a state of panic.”

The policeman sustained bullet wounds and his leg was fractured. “I heard a blast and then I fell unconscious,” he said. Mabood said the two militants he saw were hardly 22 or 23 years old.

Gates for the surgical ward at the Accident and Emergency department were closed during the visit of PTI Chairperson Imran Khan, CM Parvez Khattak and Peshawar DC Riaz Mehsud. K-P Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra also visited LRH.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2016.