Kohat Road blast: The last stop for Noor Hassan

Victims’ families struggle to identify their loved ones from the charred remains

PESHAWAR: Noor Hassan owned a small shop in Parachinar, Kurram Agency. The 28-year-old carpenter- turned-electrician had come all the way to Peshawar to stock up for his store and was returning home in the Parachinar-bound Toyota Hiace when hell struck.

The coach was targeted in a terror attack at Bazid Khel stop on Kohat Road on Wednesday, an attack some believe to be sectarian in motive. A bomb had been placed within the vehicle, causing the death of seven and injuring more.

The explosion left the bus burnt to a crisp, leaving some victims charred beyond recognition.

Hassan’s body had also been burnt completely and his relatives had to struggle to identify him from his short stature and dental markers. “He was in Peshawar to buy goods for his shop. He was a poor man from Tangi, Lower Kurram Agency,” his uncle Ashtar Ali told The Express Tribune over the phone.

“He had called his family twice before the incident. Once to inform them that he had bought the necessary material and was heading to the bus stand, and again to tell them he will be late because the coach was almost empty and the driver was waiting for more passengers,” said Ali.

Hassan went missing after that. “We waited for a while and in the evening decided to go to Lady Reading Hospital to look for him,” he added. “We reached there around midnight and identified the poor guy from his teeth.”

Ashtar Ali was not the only distressed family member. Many others were at LRH to look for their loved ones but desperately hoping not to find that birthmark or familiar bone structure in any of the burnt remains.

The fallen

“The relatives of another victim Abid Hussain were able to identify him because he had had an operation in the past and the scars from his stitches were visible on his belly,” added Ali.

Five of the seven dead—Noor Hassan, Sadaf, Imtiaz, Abid Hussain and Raza Hassan—hailed from different areas in Kurram Agency. A sixth, Fazal, was a passer-by from Bazid Khel while the seventh victim was a member of Thall Scouts (Frontier Corps) who was travelling to Parachinar.

“By midnight, the five bodies (at LRH) were identified by relatives,” a policeman told The Express Tribune. He added an FIR has been registered against an unidentified militant on the complaint of the coach driver Shahid Rehman.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.