Eight of a family incinerated

All but two of the family were burnt to charcoal in the bombing and ensuing inferno.

QUETTA: A 10-member family was travelling on Jaffar Express. They were going on vacation to Shikarpur, in Sindh. Little did they know of the tragedy that awaited them at Sibi railway station. All but two of them were burnt to charcoal in the bombing and ensuing inferno.

Byari Lal, a Hindu trader of Naushki, about 160 kilometres off Quetta, and nine members of his family were going to Shikarpur to spend vacations there. Eight of them were killed in the blast. “Their bodies are charred beyond recognition,” Ghulam Sarwar, a medic at the Civil Hospital Sibi said.

However, a grandson, Ashwanth Kumar, identified them as Byari Lal, his daughter Ashiqa Kumari, her husband Surish Kumar, their children Raman Kumar, Sundish Kumar, Ravi Kumar, Muskan Devi and a little boy. Byari Lal’s wife and another daughter survived with burn injuries. They are being treated at the Sibi hospital.

Ashwanth said that his grandfather was a businessman and owned shops in Naushki.

“My uncle, Rajesh Kumar, rushed to Sibi after learning about the deadly bombing. He could not recognise any of the bodies,” Ashwanth said, adding that they would find out their identities through DNA tests. The bodies have been moved to Quetta where DNA samples would be collected.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2014.