LAHORE: A large number of people lined up the GT Road on Wednesday to offer funeral prayers of those who were buried alive under the under rubble of a mosque on Tuesday.

Rescuer workers and local residents retrieved 22 bodies in an almost 20 hours long operation.

The roof of upper storey of Jamia Masjid Hanfia in Daroghawala collapsed on Tuesday, burying those offering Zohr prayers under the wreckage.

Also read: 20 die as Lahore mosque roof collapses

Zain, 8, narrowly escaped the tragedy. He says he was in the last row of worshippers when he heard the bang. “I frantically ran out of the mosque and saw the newly-constructed upper storey roof caved in,” a visibly shaken Zain told Dawn.

“Within moments, the whole structure was a pile of rubble.”

In a nearby house, grieving Ayesha was being comforted by 10 or so women. She lost her son, Hafiz Idrees, in the mosque collapse.

“I rushed outside when I heard the loud noise. There was only dust and rubble around where once stood the mosque,” she said. As she knew that her son was in the mosque, she cried for help to rescue her son from the rubble.

In Idrees death, the family lost the only bread winner. “Idrees had been the sole bread winner for the family of eight for the last four years after my husband fell ill,” she said. She wailed nobody was bothered about the cracks in the mosque roof.Abdur Rehman, who lost his brother, Salman Riaz, in the tragedy said his father and brother were in the mosque when it fell. His father received minor injuries but Salman was buried under the heap.

He said his brother was a brilliant student, aspiring to become an engineer. “He would offer five prayers in the mosque,” he said.

Rehman blamed bad civil construction for the mass killing, saying without consulting any civil engineer, the mosque administration jacked up the lentil of the ground storey some five to six years ago and added beams and columns to build the second storey.He said the administration hired a local mason, who laid too much soil over the second storey lentil leaving no roof drainage system. The soil absorbed rainwater weakening the columns that collapse on Tuesday.

Shehzad Ali lost his cousin, Irfan Ali, in the incident. He said the upper storey was built on the 40-year-old structure which had completed its life. He said the older side of the mosque collapsed while the newly-constructed portion remained intact.He said the mosque was constructed without consulting any architect and every year a new portion was added to it.

He said most of the time there was thin attendance in the Zohr prayers while the congregation turned bigger during Isha prayers. More than 150 children also visited the mosque for the Holy Quran lessons, he said.

Faisal, whose brother Hamza died in the mosque, said it was God’s will.

Architect Prof Dr Mahmood Hussain says most of the lentils collapse due to improper composition of construction material.

He said jacking up lentil, adding beams and columns in commercial buildings was prohibited under the law.

Spokesman for the district coordination officer Tariq Zaman said the mosque built some 40 years ago had no approved design from the district administration as the government had started issuing no-objection-certificates eight to 10 years ago.

He said the district administration was well aware of the dilapidated buildings and had served 1,500 evacuation notices to the residents in the city.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced increasing the financial assistance to the heirs of deceased persons to Rs1.6 million from Rs500,000 while Rs100,000 will be given to each injured person. The chief minister said that Punjab government will reconstruct the mosque.

Published in Dawn, September 11th , 2014