Worker jumped to land on a pile of unconscious bodies

Swaddled in bandages, Mohammad Asif now lies at the Civil hospital Burns Centre.

KARACHI:

When Mohammad Asif jumped, he fell on a mound of unconscious bodies - twice. He rose each time, adrenalin-pumped to live.

On Tuesday evening, as flames licked at their heels, Asif burned his hands trying to pull the window’s grilles out. All around him people screamed for help and recited the Kalima. For fifteen minutes Asif dodged death, taking cover under a table or running to less hotter spots. The only door to the room was in flames.

When rescue works pulled out the grille, Asif leapt. He was the third and last one to emerge alive from a room filled with around 200 workers. “The workers threw me a rope but I couldn’t hold it because my hands were burned.” He jumped from the third floor.

Swaddled in bandages, he now lies at the Civil hospital Burns Centre.

Lying next to Asif was Liaquat Hussain, who was in charge of production. His face is black, his hands and upper body burnt. “I was taking a round and everyone was busy stitching when there was were four to five loud explosions,” he recalled. There was no electricity and the factory was run on generator.

“When I dragged myself from the building, I saw my skin peeling off.” He feels he is lucky. One of his three brothers, Mujahid, who also worked at the factory, is still missing.

“There were a thousand people there and only one entrance. We were treated us as if we were machines and not humans.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2012.