ICU blackout frustrated the Jinnah terrorists’ mission

A senior nurse played a key role in preventing the terrorist from escaping.

A senior nurse who was responsible for the medical supervision of Muaz, the terrorist captured after the Friday attacks in Lahore, played a key role in preventing his escape on Monday night.

Requesting anonymity, an official told The Express Tribune that the nurse had just ended her shift and retired to the duty room to rest at 10.40pm when the first few gunshots were heard.

The ICU is sheltered behind three sets of doors and a large vacant hall between the second and third entrance way. On the night of the attack, two armed policemen had been deployed outside each entry point leading to the ICU.

Muaz had minor cuts and injuries and was recovering rather quickly. Just before the senior finished her shift, she handed him his pills with a glass of juice and was a little curious to see him grinning. The fact that he had been captured and still managed to smile made the policemen by his bedside suspicious as well.

When he was asked why he was beaming, Muaz chose not to respond.

Surviving the attack

“We heard several rounds of gunfire outside the hospital and rushed to the ICU where several nurses, duty doctors, patients and police officials were ducking and hiding. A senior nurse darted into the room immediately behind us and switched off all the lights inside the ICU and bolted the third door.

Nurses said that they could constantly hear gunshots, the screams of people outside and the sounds of glass shattering. “I hid behind the reception counter with a few other nurses. The two armed policemen tried to take shelter with us but the space could not fit so many people. One nurse told them to hide inside the toilet instead,” recalled one survivor.

The armed terrorists killed the four policemen guarding the first and second doorways and shot directly at the third gate.

“Muaz had started to scream by this point. He was calling out names and speaking in a language we did not understand. He was also constantly yelling at us to switch the lights back on. It was a very lucky thing that Muaz was handcuffed to his bed and was unable to get up and turn the lights back on or run out himself”, recalls a nurse.

The nursing staff later debated how the attackers had not heard Muaz. They ventured guesses and agreed that the chaos outside coupled with the fact that the ICU was partially soundproof had saved all of their lives.

“The hall between gate two and three is largely empty. I think the attackers assumed that the ICU ended there and retreated when they were unable to spot Muaz. The entire hall was also pitch dark, which probably made it hard to spot the third door”, said one nurse. For all practical purposes, the terrorists had actually reached the ICU..

Twenty-five minutes later police officials entered the ICU, rescued the nursing staff and took Muaz to Kot Lakh Pat jail.

Complaints

Most nurses complained that they had been asking senior police officials to provide proper security but nothing was done.

Another nurse wishing not to be named added, “Had wwe not locked the ICU and switched off the power, all of us could have been killed. The two policemen inside the ICU with us just hid in the bathroom.”

Assistant superintendant Sheeraz of Model Town police station claimed that since Muaz was chained to his bed, the two policemen deputed by his bedside were not armed. He added that Muaz was a very dangerous man and they did not want to risk giving him access to weapons.

Madam Touseef of the Punjab Nursing Association said that the Punjab government had been requested several times not to keep terrorists at public hospitals. She added that the senior nurse “should be honoured and awarded for her services.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2010.