Karachi blast: Our story
—Photo Credit: Ali Khursheed
Boom! One word, one sound and a world lost. Bomb blast. Not many people survive a bomb blast without serious injuries and live to tell the story. I am extremely fortunate that not only myself, but my husband, three children, two maids and one cook walked out of a house which can only be described as a go-down of glass shrapnel, wooden splinters and rubble unharmed and alive.
You see it on television, the way it looked, but rarely do you actually realise what goes on inside. This is our story.
September 19, 2011, for us a black Monday, began as any ordinary day. We woke up to our alarm at 6am and I rang the bell for the cook to come inside and make breakfast. Usually I wake up only one of the two maids, but I don’t know what came over me, I insisted they both wake up because I needed them. We all sat for breakfast at the dining table at precisely 6.30am and were back upstairs at 7am to get ready for school. 7.25, ready and about to exit my dressing room … BOOM!
I heard glass breaking, something fell on my head. The glass shower stall burst while my husband was bathing. He yelled, “The kids! Nausheen the kids!”
That is when realisation struck me and a strange calm seized me. I got up, went into my bedroom. There was no window grill or glass, all lying strewn across the bed and floor. I saw my children outside my door screaming, crying. They were alive. All of them. I reached the door, which was shut, but how were my children visible? It sunk in finally; the blast had been strong enough for the closed door inside the house to tear, splinter and smash across the room. I tried to open the jammed lower part; finding it stuck I climbed over it.
—Photo Credit: Ali Khursheed
“Bomb blast. Stay calm. We are alive. Say astaghfirullah.”
“Mummy, you are bleeding.” Right, I knew something had hit my head.
“I know, we will take care of it later.”
And my three brave children aged five to nine years held hands, my eldest bare feet, we walked over glass, so much glass, and rubble, and started walking towards the staircase. My husband was clothed but with soap on his face and body, rushed and lifted a large metal grill on the stairs and made way for us to pass through. Reaching down slowly, I calmly told my husband that we would sit in our car and drive to my friend’s house at the end of the street.
“The cars won’t be there.”
—Photo Credit: Ali Khursheed
Reaching down after walking on a lot of glass, we saw only devastation. There was no front door. There was no house front at all. My second son started crying.
“My house is broken. I don’t have a house. My house is broken.”
I grabbed my children’s hands and we started climbing on over the glass, bricks, and pieces of wood as we exited the front we saw the cars. The side wall had collapsed on top of one car, I don’t think our gate existed or if it did it was ravaged. No exit. No escape. The house on our left was Chaudhry Aslam’s, also a war zone.
I spun around as my husband screamed for my second son. Lost inside the devastation we heard him crying but couldn’t see him. My husband ran inside to look and emerged in seconds with him. With his great presence of mind, my husband pointed to a small opening in one of the boundary walls where the wall had collapsed. We got out of the house through that.
Blood-soaked, bare feet, eight people walked out alive from a house ravaged by what I heard later was 300 kilograms of explosives. Survived. Only to see pieces of mangled, charred and mutilated bodies. The time of attack was synchronised with the arrival of our dear driver and his son. Anwer Bhai, who for 22 years had been an integral part of our family. The world knew him as the friendly, helpful, long-haired driver. Only his torso was there. His body ripped apart by the powerful explosives. We didn’t even have time to mourn. We swallowed our tears and walked till the mid of the street, bare feet still, and then a kind neighbor dropped us at my friend’s house.
Trauma. We found out later the attack was supposedly on Chaudhry Aslam’s house. It was a suicide bomber. We revisited the site after a few hours. I have always known that the one who saves is greater than he who plans to kill, but this is the first time I have evidenced that God sends angels to carry us through. Walking out of that house, five out of the seven people who were bare feet suffered not even a scratch. My cook and I escaped with minor stitches. No physical harm. No irreparable damage to my immediate family. Our family unit was intact.
Material things come and go, but life cannot be replaced. The life of Anwer Bhai and his son Asif have been taken in a meaningless war of pride. What is it? A religious war? A political war? Personal vendetta? A war fought on the civilian front where innocent people pay the price with their irreplaceable lives. And this is what a suicide bomber takes – his life and the lives of all those around him. What heaven does he think he’ll go to I wonder.
Nausheen Manji Dadabhoy studied English and Economics at Tufts University. She is based in Karachi where she teaches.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
DearNaauseen
let me share my experience about this Bomb blast
The Bomb Blast on 19th September 2011 was really a devastating event. I returned to Dubai earlier that morning after a wonderful weekend with my family. After landing on Dubai airport I switched on my mobile , I started getting SMS may be 6 or 7 and also 3 miss call alert from my wife mobile. After reading the first SMS about Bomb blast outside the CAS,( my one kid is in CAS and other one in Lahore grammer ) I was overpowered by tears and they started rolling down, I collected all my courage to call my wife. She respond and told me that they are all safe but also informed that there is massive damage and number of people died in that blast is clear not clear. Later that day I heard about the death of a young student of Washington International along with his mother and your driver with his son. Only thing which we can do is Pray to ALLAH to protect us from these evil persons and their evil doing.
Credit to Nausheen for writing on such a disaster.No Govt is going to do anything.It is the people who are to do something.Why can't all the people,really all, come out and sit in protest stating that they would not go back till the solution is arrived at. Tell the terrorist also, the same thing?
Lovely piece.
The question still remains that whether people who are under threat should be living in the residential areas, after this incident would it be wise to move back into the same house if the neighborhood still hosts people who are under threat. Additionally there are 4000 or so students who come to this part of the area every single day and the threat still remains…..
May Allah give you hidayat and you write more.May the the ones who are gone rest in peace! Ameen
May God guide us to the right path and way from killing. This is the biggest sin in Islam. No religion tells to kill, I don't understand who these people are ?
May Allah guide us and protect us in these war-torn tragic times. May He keep our children safe and healthy. Me He restore peace in our beloved country where the worker can reap the rewards of his labor, children are educated, humanity exists again, religion is more than rituals and war…may we all live to see that day….Aameen. AH for your and your family's safety and condolences for your loss…
Muslim or not, I cant even think of someone who will do such a thing to other humans. But still to my amazement we see all this happening in places we least expect it to happen. A residential area is a place even the military try not attacking. It is good to hear that the writer;s family came out of the ordeal unharmed, but still precious lives were lost and damage caused which remains irreparable. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones, even the family of the brain washed bomber who blew himself thinking he'd get a place in heaven.
A word of advice for people playing the blame game, lets pray and pray in a manner Allah will listen to. The government has been sleeping ever since, and there's no point blaming them for ever bad that happens. Even if zardari stood in front of the bomber, he wouldn't have stopped for him. In a country where the media shows how the people who run the government exploit the nation everyday and nothing happens, do you really think that your response to an article is going to change the way they think?
Our daughter attends one of the schools right across from your residence (CAS) and we were just headed down to the car when we found out what had happened. While we are very glad that this incident did not take place an hour later when the schools would have resumed their full out schedule, our heart goes out to the mother and son who became victims. I am a Crisis and Emergency Management specialist and have been trying to work with the Administration on risk reduction for such disasters but so far nothing made of it. I have dedicated my most recent post 'When Terrorism Strikes Too Close To Home' to Moeed and his mother Mumtaz. Please read, forward, comment and share. Most of all, sound off your concerns with safety and security in the future.
It is a tragedy. It is hard to understand how a Muslim can justify committing this kind of senseless killings. It is certainly not Jihad. You cannot even call it revenge since many innocent lives were lost who were not involved in any kind of conflict. This is so unfortunate that some foolish people are blindly following leaders or groups who claim themselves to be the defenders of islam with their distorted interpretations. Allah is JUST and He will certainly do justice to all those who are committing these killlings. After all the return of all things is to HIM.
Your articles makes me think, why? why innocent people??
the situation of this country leaves much to desire.
Listening from Miss hadia about you was devastating, especially about your driver, May his Soul Rest in peace. You're brave to survive this shock. May Allah always bless you and your family like He did this time.
I just saw your driver a day or two before the blast Miss Nausheen. I still can't believe He's no more. I hope you and your family's safe.
Dear Fellow pakistani I feel so sad reading your account of that bomb blast my thoughts and pryers are with you Thank God that noone in your family was seriously hurt count your blessing.
Dear nausheen this is so scary and sad at the same time..I mourn for all those innocent ppl who died in this incident..I had tears in my eyes when I saw the picture of the teacher and her 8old son who became victims…may allah give u and your family strength and courage to face whatever loss you had!
May Allah always keep your family & every family safe(Ameen) Please pray 4 peace in our country.
Most of the comments are thanking God for saving the lady and her family. Please spare a thought for the poor driver and his son. What was their fault ?
All I can say at this difficult moment in time is that May Allah show us and everyone the true path. Our religion is of peace it is the people who don't understand our religion who have made it into a violent religion. Patience, humbleness, caring for our neighbour, good communitiy relations, respecting our parents and elders, these are all part of our religion wich we seem to have forgotten. Nowadays it is all about Hate, Hate and more Hate for each other. May Allah help us so that we can help ourselves to the correct path in life whichever it may be.