Kohat Road blast: Unsuspecting victims of an ongoing war
Another deadly blast claims nine lives, injures another 32.
PESHAWAR:
Abdul Qadir, 11, was working in his uncle’s repair shop when the Kohat Road blast left him severely injured.
He was one of the 25 people injured in the blast which killed at least nine people.
The minor narrowly escaped the explosion when he left his workshop to go to the washroom, but the impact of the blast left him wounded in the head and foot. Qadir almost suffocated as smoke filled inside, compelling him to break the door and escape.
“The powerful blast jolted the washroom,” Qadir said, “I was calling my uncle to help me because my head was severely injured and I thought I was dying.” But his uncle himself was injured and left unconscious.
Qadir, lying on a bed in the emergency unit of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), said the excessive smoke and dust made it hard for him to navigate and he found dead and injured people lying around. “But then locals came and took us in their own vehicles to hospitals,” he said.
Qadir was still unsure about his uncle’s state. “My cousin only said he was critically injured,” said Qadir, not able to move on his bed due to his head injury. But his 22-year-old uncle, Muhammad Bilal, was among those killed by the blast targeting the Pakistan Air Force.
“I left my school in second grade because teachers would not attend classes and I thought I was not learning anything,” said Qadir. “I wanted to go to a private school but could not afford it,” he said, adding that it forced him to quit school and start earning to help his family.
Once again, the emergency ward of the LRH was filled with relatives frantically searching for their family members, while many of the injured were calling home to tell their loved ones that they were one of the victims.
“I was going to a shop to buy some juice for my children when the blast occurred,” said Khalil, another injured victim. I saw flesh scattered along the road and people walking all over the pieces, he added. “Everyone was calling for help, but many people were afraid to come close.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2012.
Abdul Qadir, 11, was working in his uncle’s repair shop when the Kohat Road blast left him severely injured.
He was one of the 25 people injured in the blast which killed at least nine people.
The minor narrowly escaped the explosion when he left his workshop to go to the washroom, but the impact of the blast left him wounded in the head and foot. Qadir almost suffocated as smoke filled inside, compelling him to break the door and escape.
“The powerful blast jolted the washroom,” Qadir said, “I was calling my uncle to help me because my head was severely injured and I thought I was dying.” But his uncle himself was injured and left unconscious.
Qadir, lying on a bed in the emergency unit of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), said the excessive smoke and dust made it hard for him to navigate and he found dead and injured people lying around. “But then locals came and took us in their own vehicles to hospitals,” he said.
Qadir was still unsure about his uncle’s state. “My cousin only said he was critically injured,” said Qadir, not able to move on his bed due to his head injury. But his 22-year-old uncle, Muhammad Bilal, was among those killed by the blast targeting the Pakistan Air Force.
“I left my school in second grade because teachers would not attend classes and I thought I was not learning anything,” said Qadir. “I wanted to go to a private school but could not afford it,” he said, adding that it forced him to quit school and start earning to help his family.
Once again, the emergency ward of the LRH was filled with relatives frantically searching for their family members, while many of the injured were calling home to tell their loved ones that they were one of the victims.
“I was going to a shop to buy some juice for my children when the blast occurred,” said Khalil, another injured victim. I saw flesh scattered along the road and people walking all over the pieces, he added. “Everyone was calling for help, but many people were afraid to come close.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2012.