Civil Secretariat employees reel in aftermath

Many have mixed feelings about private transport after govt employees targeted yet again

PESHAWAR: As they returned to their office from Lady Reading Hospital on Wednesday, employees of the Civil Secretariat were in a state of grief, shock and panic. Many of them had survived the bus explosion. They had also seen the mutilated bodies of their co-passengers who weren’t as lucky as they had been.

Muhammad Ilyas, an employee, was surrounded by his colleagues as he walked through the entrance. Many of them were desperate to know who had survived.





He told them what he saw at LRH and they silently listened to him.

Ilyas had friends who took the fated bus journey and went to the hospital to enquire about their health.

“Akram was injured, but his son could not survive,” he told the employees. “I spoke to Marjan who took goods from Karkhano Market in the bus. He had an injury on his shoulder.”

Sohrab Khan, a driver at the Civil Secretariat, asked Ilyas about the bus driver.

“What about Fareed Ustad?” he asked. “Did he survive?”

“I did not see him,” Ilyas replied. “But he is [said to be] in the ICU and is in critical condition.”



Without pausing for breath, Ilyas continued, “You remember the Baba, the old man, from Jalala [in Mardan]?” His body was mutilated. They found some parts of his body. I don’t know whether they belong to him or someone else.”

As he narrated the incident, Ilyas looked visibly disconcerted. He knew he would never be able to wipe this day from his mind. He used to take the bus every day to visit his family in Shergarh. At the back of his mind, Ilyas knew had he been on the bus, he would have encountered a similar fate.

“I decided to stay in Peshawar the night before otherwise I would have also been travelling on the bus,” he told The Express Tribune. “[After today] I can’t travel in these buses anymore as this is the fourth incident of its kind.”

Illusion of safety

Many Civil Secretariat employees belong to Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and other areas. They travel to Peshawar in these privately-owned buses, preferring the non-stop service and relatively cheap fare.



“I have been travelling in these buses for five years since I got job,” Ilyas said.

Sohrab added these buses charge “nominal fares” and offer a convenient pick-and-drop service. “If I travel by a passenger coach, I have to go to the bus stand,” he said. “It costs me Rs140 for both my journey to and back from the Civil Secretariat. By taking these buses, I reach my office in time and only have to pay Rs80.”

However, some of Ilyas’ colleagues are still willing to travel in the buses as there is no other option available to them.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2016.