Nowshera bombing: Fear and grief envelope Lady Reading Hospital

Ambulances, reporters, policemen and medics produce a chaotic soup.

PESHAWAR:

The trauma room of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) is packed with people. The pungent smell of blood and disinfectant fills the air and a cacophony of voices drowns out any cry in the distance. In one corner, a young man of around 20 years is seated on a bench with blood oozing from his back. Ihsanullah is among the victims who sustained injuries at a bomb attack in a shrine of Nowshera district, during Friday prayers.

The attack occurred in a shrine named after Muslim saint Akhund Panju Baba, located in Akbarpura, on the outskirts of Nowshera. According to official sources, ten people, including a child, were killed in the bombing.

“I only remember hearing an extremely loud bang, after which people fell like crumbs of dry leaves,” Ihsanullah tells The Express Tribune.

His worried uncle Umer Khan is attending him. “Please, arrange a bed or something for him,” he pleads as no-one listens in these frenzied moments.

Such scenes are all too familiar in LRH. Damning images of wailing people and ambulances, tense media corps, quarrelling doctors and policemen are now etched deeply in public memories of the health facility.

As many new patients are ushered into the trauma room for basic treatment, those who have received primary treatment are ushered to the surgical trauma ward on the second floor for further treatment.

“God knows better how many more are waiting to ask me about the blast,” an irritated Sajjad Ali Shah lashes out to a question. “I am sick of these inquires, everybody comes and asks me and then leaves.

All of you know that a blast inside the mosque happened, and that is all!” he says angrily.

Maqsood Ali Shah, another victim who has sustained injuries on his leg, feels a little grateful for the blast having occurred after the majority of the worshippers had left the mosque.

“Thousands of people gather in the shrine on Friday, but only a small number had stayed for the charity meal when the blast occurred,” he explains.

Shah belongs to the family of the shrine’s caretaker. One of his relatives, standing close by, says, “This attack has shocked us all as we did not have the slightest inkling that such a thing could happen here.”

Next, the arrival of a minister brings pushing and shoving to its climax and everybody inside the ward is tense till the minister’s exit. Outside, a large crowd of reporters and cameramen wait for him. They attack every ambulance and vehicle bringing in the injured to the facility.

“This is nothing new for us at the LRH,” casually says Dr Shiraz Qayyum Afridi, head of the emergency department.

He says that the LRH is the main receiving point for mass casualties from all over the province and that they can easily deal with up to 150 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2011.