Relative of a victim of Shah Noorani shrine blast cries at Civil Hospital Karachi on November 13, 2016. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/ EXPRESS
The family kept making rounds of different hospitals in Karachi and also visited different settlements near the shrine as they received no help from the Balochistan government in their search.
An inconsolable Shareefa - Sarfaraz's mother - stood in front of Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Monday morning, clutching her son's picture tightly as she wept uncontrollably. She appealed to the government to help find her son.
Shareefa and her husband had allowed Sarfaraz to visit the shrine along with his aunt, cousins and many neighbours who travelled there in a coaster van. There were around 25 people with whom Sarfaraz went to the shrine, said the boy's maternal uncle, Aamir.
Soon after the news of the blast at the shrine was reported on Saturday, the family rushed to various hospitals of the city and tried to contact their loved ones via mobile phone. Since there were no mobile signals at the shrine, the family remained clueless about their relatives' whereabouts for hours.
It was not until the wee hours of Sunday when the coaster reached Keamari when, to Shareefa's dismay, Sarfaraz was not in the vehicle. Sarfaraz's aunt and uncle stayed at the shrine to search for him. "Later, when they found no trace of Sarfaraz at the shrine, they also came back to Karachi on Sunday evening, anticipating that he could have been moved to a hospital here," said Aamir.
The family kept visiting Civil Hospital, Karachi, Civil Hospital, Hub, and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. However, they found no sign of Sarfaraz. According to Aamir, the staff at the hospitals did help them look for the boy but no one from the Balochistan government facilitated them. "We [did] not know who to contact in Khuzdar," he said.
A glimmer of hope
On Monday, one of the residents of Keamari who returned from the shrine informed Aamir that there are two young boys stranded at a settlement located near the shrine. Since public transport from Khuzdar had been temporarily suspended, Aamir thought it is possible that Sarfaraz had been stranded there.
The locals living around the shrine, according to Aamir, are very kind and hospitable. He added that the family kept praying for Sarfaraz's safety. "Around 20 motorcycles and a Suzuki van left from Keamari for the settlement located near the shrine at around 2pm [on Monday] to look for Sarfaraz," he said, adding that it took them around eight hours to reach the settlement.
When they reached the area, law enforcers deployed there by the Balochistan government initially did not let them venture inside the settlements and only two men were later allowed to go inside and inquire about Sarfaraz. "No Balochistan government official was at the site of the blast or nearby to offer any sort of help," lamented Aamir, adding that they returned disappointed, deprived of all hope. "We were left on our own [throughout] the entire situation," he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Aamir and his other family members made yet another round of the Edhi mortuary and finally identified Sarfaraz's body by examining his clothes. Had the government shown even an iota of interest in finding the boy, they would not have faced such immense difficulties, claimed Aamir.
Meanwhile, Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar said he had no knowledge of any list of missing persons that has been compiled. When questioned whether they have established any camp office near the shrine to help families find their loved ones, he said that only the commissioner of the district could answer that. Balochistan home secretary Akbar Harifal said that so far they have received no claims of missing persons.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2016.
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