A prayer to remember: Terror visits Shikarpur

People had taken their seats to listen to the Friday khutba when the powerful bomb went off

SUKKUR:

Akash Ali Thaheem had gone to the imambargah to say his Friday prayers. He was sitting in the second row from the front facing the imam who was giving the khutba. It was around 1:30pm when he and the men sitting with him heard a loud blast. Within seconds, the entire place was filled with black smoke.

At first, his vision was blurred but as the smoke started to clear he ran out of the prayer hall where they had been sitting. Despite his injuries, he said his first instinct was to get out. His clothes — white shalwar kameez, were soaked in blood. He started to move once he felt that he was strong enough and decided that he had to go home.

Thaheem was one of the 55 people injured in a bomb blast targeting Karbala Maula Imambargah in Shikarpur on Friday afternoon. Until Friday evening, more than 56 people were also killed. It is reported that the imam, Maulvi Tanveer Hussain Shah, was also critically injured.

At the time of the blast, more than 80 people who were present in the prayer hall were injured, 28 died on the spot or on the way to the hospital. Many of the injured had to be taken to private hospitals in Sukkur and Chandka Medical College Hospital in Larkana as the government hospitals did not have the facilities to treat the victims. Several residents of both the cities rushed to hospitals to donate blood. A heavy contingent of law enforcers were also deployed in and outside the hospital.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the injured complained about lack of doctors, ambulances and medical staff at Civil Hospital, Shikarpur. They claimed that due to this, people were forced to take the injured in cars, rickshaws and, in some cases, donkey carts.

According to Allah Dino, the imambargah usually has its own security outside but no one was there on Friday. “There were no policemen or volunteers to check who was coming in and going out,” he said. “The blast was so powerful that most of us fell to the ground. Then it was completely dark, everyone was screaming for help. My brother and I were on the first floor offering our prayers when it happened.” He added that most of the men on the first floor of the imambargah remained unharmed while just a few had sustained minor injuries.



Sanaullah’s mother brought him to the hospital for treatment. She had been running from doctor to doctor to ask if her son was out of danger. “My son has received injuries in the head and is in a critical state,” she said. “He is my only child and the sole breadwinner of our family of five.”

A young boy identified as Samar Abbas was also injured in the blast. Doctors claim that he was also in a bad state.

Witness Ghulam Sajjad said that he had minor injuries on his ribs. He claimed that he had entered the hall when the imam was delivering the khutba.

“As soon as I sat down, the bomb went off,” he said. “I got up and with the help of others, started helping the injured. We only had news of one ambulance arriving at the site.” He added that by the time the Edhi ambulances reached, they had already started shifting the injured in private transport.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2015.