Victims of building collapse laid to rest

The three-storey building located in Jaffar Tayyar Society collapsed on Monday morning

KARACHI: Emotional scenes were witnessed at the Ghazi Goth graveyard in Malir, where four members of a family, who had died after a three-storey building collapsed in Jaffar Tayyar Society on Monday, were laid to rest.

The victims' bodies, which had been retrieved from the rubble after hours-long efforts by rescue teams, were identified as Hassan Abbas Zaidi, his wife Zahra and their two sons, Sabih Haider and Jari Haider. A third son of the couple had been rescued in an injured condition from the site on Monday.

On Tuesday, the victims' funeral prayers were offered outside Jama Masjid Jaffer Tayyar Society in the afternoon and were led by Allama Naseem Haider. Hundreds of people, including relatives, friends, neighbours, government officials and political leaders attended the funeral prayers.



Eyewitness account

Speaking to the media after the burial, Javed, who said he was the Zaidis' driver, said that he had been present at the site when the building collapsed.

According to Javed, he used to drop one of Hassan Abbas's sons and his wife to school every morning and had come to work as per routine on Monday at around 7am. When he reached the house, he went upstairs to get the car keys and when he came down, Hassan Abbas followed him.

As he exited the building, he looked up and saw that the overhead water tank was shaking. "I asked Hassan Abbas if it was me who was dizzy or was the building shaking," recalled Javed.

Noticing the instability, Hassan Abbas, who was standing at the gate, immediately shouted for his family to get out. It was at this moment that the building collapsed. "I was momentary knocked unconscious and when I came to, there was only dust and smoke everywhere," he said. As he regained his senses, he shouted out for help. The nieghbours soon came out and together, they managed to pull Hassan Abbas from the rubble. Unfortunately, he had passed away by then.

Rescue efforts ongoing

The rescue operation continued well into Tuesday. According to rescue officials, there were no traces of any person present under the rubble anymore.

If anyone, other than Hassan Abbas's family was present in the building when it collapsed, someone would have come asking for them, but that wasn't the case.

According to the rescue teams, it would take several more hours for the debris to be cleared. They added a four-member team of the Sindh Building Control Authority will investigate the incident after the rubble is cleared.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2019.