KARACHI: “We were following judge sahib’s car. I was in the front seated beside our driver in our police van when the blast occurred. I jumped out and raced to the car ahead. The judge sahib had been injured. I pulled him out of the car and carried him to safety in my arms,” sub-inspector Amir Hussain told Dawn while getting treatment at the emergency section of the Aga Khan University Hospital here on Wednesday.

“I didn’t understand then why people were looking at me and asking me to rest and lie down. I’ve just realised after reaching the hospital that I am injured as well,” the police officer added.

“I am glad that the judge sahib will be alright. I have been assigned his protection for over a year now. He is a kind man,” he said.

The police officer had a hole in his left cheek. “A ball bearing shot through my cheek and broke my tooth,” he said pulling down his lower lip to show a broken incisor. His arms and entire upper body also had small ball bearing wounds. “They [doctors] have informed me that I need to be operated upon to take out some ball bearings that are still inside,” the injured SI Hussain said.

Police constable Taqi Raza was also one of the men on duty sitting at the back of the police van providing protection to Justice Maqbool Baqar. He said he had gone completely deaf after the blast but could hear a bit from his right ear now.

“I am beginning to think that I’m blast-prone. As Ahl-i-Tashee I have survived two bomb attacks during our religious meetings, one of them being the Ashura procession blast four years back, and this is the third one. I guess I have become thick-skinned and might as well brace myself for more,” he said quietly.

Head constable Junaid Mashhood said that he remembered hearing a blast but nothing afterwards. “One moment I was on duty with the squad of DIG A.D. Khawaja and now I am here in hospital. I remember hearing a blast and then nothing else until now. I think I blacked out,” he provided.

The squad was also passing through the area at the time of the blast.

Another police official named Talat Mahmood only stared blankly and gestured that he couldn’t hear anything when spoken to. “He has small injuries on his arms and legs but we are really worried about his hearing. Will he be able to hear normally again?” asked his worried relatives in the waiting area.

The injured, eight in number including Justice Maqbool Baqar, were relocated to the AKU hospital after being rushed to the Civil Hospital Karachi soon after the blast at around 8.30am. Hospital sources said that all the eight of them were in a stable condition. Justice Baqar was in the recovery room after undergoing surgery.

“What was the judge’s fault? He doesn’t have any links with the US. He was only punished for striving for truth and justice,” said Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Farooq Sattar while speaking to the media outside the hospital emergency section.

“People like Justice Baqar and MPA Sajid Qureshi and his son are good citizens who care about their fellowmen. And this is how they are rewarded,” the MQM leader said.

Dr Sattar said: “The prime minister needs to sit with the chief ministers of all the provinces and the country’s security agencies. In fact he should call an all-parties conference in order to be able to review roles and come up with one policy to combat terrorism in Pakistan.

“The MQM is not against holding talks but there should be someone to listen too. We need a counter-terrorism policy otherwise the entire country will slip out of the government hands as has been the case in Khyber Paktunkhwa and Balochistan,” he concluded.