Black day: Seventy injured, six in critical condition at LGH

Family and friends of the injured pray for their loved ones in the hospital.

LAHORE: The congregations of St John’s Catholic Church and Christ Church and relatives of the injured rushed to the Lahore General Hospital soon after two suicide blasts rocked the churches mid-mass in Youhanabad on Sunday.

The hospital presented heart-wrenching scenes as family and friends prayed for the recovery of their loved ones. Fifteen people were killed and more than 70 people were injured in the attacks. Doctors said the condition of six of them was critical.

The Lahore General Hospital MS said the bodies of the victims had been sent to the Jinnah Hospital morgue. He said 35 of those injured had been admitted to the hospital by Sunday evening and those whose condition was satisfactory had been discharged. He said six, including one taken to Mayo Hospital’s burn unit, were in critical condition.

Scores of young men from Youhanabad crowded the Lahore General Hospital and set up their own security cordons. They pushed the policemen inside the hospital.

Mansoor Gill, 90, one of the patients, said, “I saw the whole thing. The bomber blew himself up while trying to enter Christ Church… We had heard the blast at the Catholic Church five minutes earlier, only we thought that a transformer had blown up.”

Gill said he saw a man trying to force his way through the main gate. “Then everything went dark.”   Yousaf Rehmat, another member of the congregation at Christ Church, had arrived at the hospital to enquire about his cousins and friends who were injured in the incident. He narrated a similar tale but Gill’s and Rehmat’s description of the attacker was different.

Irfan Ashiq, one of the injured, said he was at the Catholic Church when he heard a deafening blast. He said dozens of them had been injured but the church administration forbade them from exiting the church building, fearing another attack. “Soon we heard ambulance sirens,” he said.

Patras Masih, who had been at the Christ Church, had suffered multiple injuries due to ball bearings used in the suicide attack. He said he had been sitting towards the end of the congregation when the attack had occurred.

The patients said there was very little police security at the churches. Scores of young men shouted slogans against the government and the police in front of the hospital. When Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique and Senator Kamran Michael arrived at the hospital, they shouted slogans against them.

CCPO Amin Wains visited at the hospital in plain clothes and did not stay for more than 10 minutes. SP Imtiaz Sarwar, however,thanked the crowd for cooperating with them. To a question about how the police was pushed into a corner, Sarwar said that the incident had shocked the community. “A little aggression in such circumstances is only normal.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2015.