Posthumous happenings: 9 victims of Nawabshah van tragedy win prizes after death

NGO that held the competition on the fateful day will give awards to parents .

HYDERABAD:

The victims of the school van accident in Nawabshah that claimed 24 lives will be awarded posthumously for securing positions in the last competition they attended in their lives.

The Association for Academic Quality (Afaq), a non-profit organisation that had held the quiz competition at HM Khoja Hall in Nawabshah, will organise a ceremony in Nawabshah to distribute the prizes of the deceased children to their parents.

As many as nine of the deceased students, and one injured student, won top positions in the competition. Up to six schools of Nawabshah and 130 students had participated in Afaq’s competition. According to Afaq’s regional manager Rafi Mustafa, the students of classes six, seven and eight had participated.

In each class category, the first positions were achieved by the students who lost their lives later the same day. Fareeha Akram, 13, topped in the class eight category, Fareesa Hashmat, 13, aced the class seven segment and Yaseen Bashir, 12, won in the class six category.



The students were given 100 multiple-choice questions on countries, inventions, personalities and animals. Fareeha clinched the highest score of 89 among all the three classes, followed by Fareesa’s score of 88 and Yaseen’s of 72.

The 14-year-old deceased, Iqra Aashiq, bagged the second position, Muazam Bhatti, 14, won the third position and Ayesha Aslam, who was injured in the accident, came fourth in the class eigh category. The deceased students - Mansoorul Haq, 13, Hamza Irshad, 13, and Noman Rafi, 12 - finished second, third and fifth, respectively, in the class seven segment.

Among students of class eight, Yasmeen Arain, 12, won the second position and Uffaq Arshad, 11, came fourth. Mustafa pointed out that the organisation is planning to hold a special ceremony in Nawabshah to distribute prizes among the families of these students.

School reopens

Amid grief and sobs, the tragedy-struck school reopened on Monday after a lapse of 12 days. The day began with observance of silence for the victims and a Fateha khwani. “The last time we all had gathered in this assembly before the accident, life was as usual,” said Kiran Khanzada as she addressed the school assembly. “But it is no longer the case now.”

The other teachers recalled their memories of the late students and how they outshone their classmates in academic excellence. “We regret attending that quiz competition,” said Sana, who secured the second position in the competition. “I wish we had not gone there.”

Investigations

Almost 13 days have passed since the accident but the government has yet to come up with an official report explaining its cause and fixing responsibility. The chief minister dutifully formed a committee, led by Hyderabad divisional commissioner Jamal Mustafa Syed, to submit a report within a week. But the commissioner said he has sought five more days to submit the report. He said he had other responsibilities to take care of and blamed the deputy commissioner (DC) of Nawabshah of delays.

Sources claimed, however, that Nawabshah DC Abdul Aleem Lashari has prepared the report. The sharp curve on the Nawabshah-Qazi Ahmed link road at Rohri Canal Bridge, over-speeding of the dumper driver, overcrowding in the school van and a lack of speed breakers near the transport stops over the road have been cited as the main reasons behind the accident. Lashari was, however, not available to confirm these findings.

Up to 35 passengers, including 31 students, three teachers and a driver were seated in the van that was designed to carry only up to 18 passengers. The police sources admitted that it is very likely that the management of Bright Future Public High School will be implicated in the case. The school principal, Zakia Khanzada who was also injured in the accident, was unavailable for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2014.