Blood and oranges

KARACHI: The lighting plays tricks on the mind. The squished fruit looks like something else. Apples, bananas, grapes, oranges. Blood.

At Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s mazaar the ground is sickly slippery. The police and rangers mince past the wetness on the tiled floor. Security guard caps come underfoot. The ambulances take flight.

Twenty-four year old Wasif Khan runs the shoe collection stall at the shrine. “I saw the bodies of the security guards flying in the air,” he says. “I covered my ears with my hands.” Khan had issued 357 tickets on Thursday night, which means that at least these many people had gone to the lawn and shrine. But this, luckily, was a low number for the traditional Thursdays. Normally he issues around 1,500 tickets by 7 pm.

Some people find a head. He has fair skin and looks like he was just 16 years old. He has no beard and his hair is made.

At the hospital

“Go look inside the ambulance [if you can]. I don’t think anybody can stand the sight of a body that’s been blown to pieces,” says a rescue volunteer at Jinnah hospital’s morgue. This is not true.

Crazed mothers, who usually hug their bodies close to themselves in public places, are wide-armed and wild-eyed. “Please let me go inside, my three children are missing. They were inside the mazaar,” says Jannat, 35. She was on the topmost stairs at the shrine when the first explosion took place. Her children, Fatima, Tahir and Saima, were downstairs. “When I heard the first bang I started running and then there was another blast. My mind went blank. I sat down for a few minutes.”

After Jinnah hospital’s last miraculous escape from its own terrorist attack, no one was taking any chances. Bodies lunge forward, arms are raised as men shout at the police and Rangers who are preventing them from entering. They arrest a man with a bag in his hands, but later release him. “Anything can happen as it did before,” says a DSP from Saddar.

There are at least 11 bodies, including two heads and four legs, on stretchers. Two of the bodies are covered with a cloth. Ambulance volunteers say they found the bodies of two young boys, probably five or six years old. “Their bodies are pierced with splinters,” says one. They are later identified as Umar, son of Asghar, and Ali Hyder, son of Altaf. Originally from Sahiwal, they were living in Neelam Colony, close to the shrine. “Since they were from a very poor family they used to go to the shrine to get the free food,” says Asadullah, one of the boy’s uncles. Inside, a small boy in a yellow shirt and black trousers stares out into nothing as nurses fuss over his body. His arms and legs are injured and he has a chest wound. He isn’t speaking. According to his uncle, the boy and his father were in the shrine. “Now we’re going to check the mortuary,” he says.

You cannot hear yourself think, register anything above the eardrum numbing sirens. One man breathes his last at the casualty’s door. The injured include two young women, who were reported to be security guards at the mazaar. “Samina Khalid and Rozina are my sisters. They were recently appointed by the Auqaf department as security guards,” says Muhammed Shakeel, 40, a resident of Lines Area.

Feroza holds a small baby to her chest and sobs outside the ward. “My six-year-old Uzair was playing near the scanning machines. I had gone to get langar when the blast happened.”

According to JPMC MLO Abdur Razzaq around 11 bodies have reached the hospital. “I cannot tell the exact number though,” he warns. The victims have been identified as Kashif, 20, Tasawar, Adil, Mustafa and Zarjan. An assistant manager of the Auqaf department and three male security guards are among the injured. They are identified as Punho Khan Bajer, Daaim Bajeer, Altaf Ali and Sikander. They all hailed from Mithi, Thar.

At Civil hospital, at least five people are brought in. According to the MLO, four of the injured people are out of danger and one is in critical condition. He says the injured are 36-year-old Ghulam Sarwer, 22-year-old Sameera Shah, 18-year-old Fatima Shah, 48-year-old Ashrafi and Saeeda.

Close by

Customers at the nearby Koel Cafe left after the two blasts. “We had about 10 to 12 customers when the blasts took place. They left instantly,” says a worker at the restaurant. “I heard both the explosions.” One happened after 7 pm and the other blast occurred just 45 seconds after the first one, he reports. “The first one was so loud. I was eating and my plate fell off the table.”

with additional reporting by sohail khattak and fawad shah

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2010.