Chaos in Jhat Pat market: Wedding preparations cut short in Lyari house

Two sisters had gone with a list of items to buy for their sister’s wedding when they died .

KARACHI:

With smiling faces and a list of wedding items to buy, two sisters and their six-year-old cousin made their way to Lyari's Jhat Pat Market. The hustle of the popular market soon turned into chaos as some men hurled hand grenades and took away the lives of the three girls among several others.

Abdul Wahid's daughters, Hira, 17, and Asifa, 16, and his six-year-old niece, Maryam, died on the spot. Their bodies were taken to Civil Hospital, Karachi, but the angry relatives took them away without post-mortem to their house in Nawa Lane's street no.17.

"The rukhsati was scheduled for next week and all these girls were busy shopping for it," one of Wahid's relative said before he burst into tears. "We are ruined now. What was the crime of these innocent girls? To whom do we blame, bhai?"

Apart from these three girls, Hamida and her daughter, Nabila, were also in the market when another bomb hit them, killing them on the spot. "They left the house only 15 minutes before the attacks," an angry relative said. "I can't say who had done this and why … please, just leave us."  Jhat Pat Market is a popular spot for the women in Lyari as the shops offer a wide variety of items. That explains why most of the victims of Wednesday's attack were women and children.

The people who were injured told The Express Tribune that they didn't hear any firing before or after blasts. No one was sure how many explosions actually took place and from where they were thrown. It was utter chaos.

According to Wajid, 26, there were more than half-a-dozen explosions and he was injured in the first. He tried to escape despite his wounded feet but would hardly cross a few feet before another explosion would knock him down. "I was with my friend, Musaddiq, when the bomb hit us. I tried to run and fell down. Everyone was crying," he recalled.

When Lyari residents had learned to deal with the sounds of gunshots, Wednesday's attacks brought a whole new level of fear in them. The injured people wanted to leave the hospital as soon they received first-aid and were reluctant to share names with the reporters. "They'll kill me, if I talk to you," sobbed an injured girl, whose wedding is scheduled in two months. "I tried to run when three explosions took place but the shop owner stopped me. Then a bomb hit me from the back within a few minutes."

Hospital

As the bodies reached Civil hospital, several angry residents came and fought with the doctors, the guards and the media personnel. The hospital management struggled to put everyone at ease. The medico-legal officers were unable to control the mob as the law enforcers "abandoned them in the crisis".

The doctors admitted that the police and Rangers arrived long after the bodied did. "Our security staff is not fully equipped or trained to overcome such situations," said one doctor. Until evening, not a single high-ranking police official arrived at Civil hospital to meet the injured victims neither were any extra forced deployed.

"Some political leaders called the hospital, wishing to pay a visit but the authorities told them not to come," said an official, adding that their visits would have exposed the poor management of the victims and that the attendants may have attacked the leaders in anger.

Neither the hospital management nor the police were sure how many people died but sources said that at least 19 people, including Hira, Asifa, Maryam, Hamida, Nabila, Shahid, 40, Farida, 40, Sattar, 35, Faheem, 12, a 30-year-old man, four unknown women and three young girls lost their lives.

"We only carried out post-mortem of five persons," confirmed Senior MLO Dr Nisar Ahmed Shah. He added that 42 injured people were brought to the hospital and they were all wounded in the explosions. "No one was injured or killed by bullets."

The residents of Jhat Pat Market have started migrating to safer places after the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2014.