HYDERABAD: A pall of gloom hung over Paretabad — a densely congested locality of the city — since LPG cylinder blasts a day earlier that had left dozens of people, most of them children, injured with high percentage of burns. Eight children, who were rushed to the burns ward of Civil Hospital Karachi soon after the incident, succumbed to their injuries between midnight and Friday evening.

The deceased were identified as Abdul Hadi, son of Asghar, Ali Raza, 2, son of Bilal, Ayan, 10, son of Mohammad Javed, Azaan Ali, son of Mohammad Raees, Mohammad Raheem, 8, son of Mohammad Faheem, Bilal,14/15, son of Ashiq, Hasnain, son of Rashid Ali and Ali Hyder, son of Zeeshan.

According to some eyewitnesses, the tragedy had unfolded when one cylinder blew up at a fuel filling shop and triggered a big fire injuring many people present around. A crowd of local residents, shopkeepers and children ran towards the shop out of curiosity to know about the reason of the blast.

Two-three minutes later, a second blast, apparently due to exploding of another cylinder, occurred and blew off a fireball that engulfed many other men, women and children present close to the burning shop.

The death toll is feared to rise as many of the victims were stated to be in an extremely critical condition and fighting for life in different hospitals in Karachi.

Paretabad descended into mourning as soon as news of one after the other death kept coming from late Thursday evening till Friday evening.

State of mourning

Families of the around 60 affected families and hundreds of local residents looked shocked over the tragedy and furious over failure of the authorities concerned to ensure that such highly dangerous businesses in congested and densely populated localities were not allowed.

All business, trade and commercial activities across Paretabad remained closed on Friday and the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (HCCI) has appealed to businessmen, traders and vendors to keep their businesses closed for the first half of the day (till 2pm) on Saturday in mourning for the deceased victims and solidarity with all surviving ones and their families.

Collective funeral prayers for the eight children, whose bodies were brought from Karachi on Friday, were offered in the Eidgah Ground. Separate funeral prayers were also held.

Confusion about number of victims

There was some confusion about the actual number of victims as the district administration claimed that a total of 63 people were injured and 32 of them were referred to Karachi hospitals whereas the list of injured received by the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) contained only 48 names. Of them, 13 were referred to Karachi, the LUH administration said, adding that 14 of the other 35 patients were admitted in the hospital till Thursday evening.

On Friday, 10 more patients were admitted to the LUH and two of them were Aman, 9, son of Mohammad Shahid, and Ehsan, 11, son of Mohammad Shan who were admitted in the paediatrics ICU. The others who were admitted in the burns ward were Yasmeen, 55, wife of Qasim, Sabir, 35, son of Abdul Sattar, Ubaid Raza, 12, son of Ami, Jameel, 40, son of Raheem Bux, Parveen, 52, wife of Abdul Hameed, Mohammad Hussain, 52, son of Ameeruddin and Fazeelat and Zara Noor, daughters of Imran, it said.

Tempers run high

Tempers ran high as a large number of charged people form among those who offered funeral prayers in the Eidgah Ground raised slogans against Mayor Kashif Shoro and Deputy Mayor Saghir Qureshi who, along with DIG Tariq Dharejo and SSP Dr Farrukh Ali, were present there. They all were speechless.

Giving vent to its collective feeling, the crowd also condemned the media for airing news of their choice alone and Sindh government for its alleged apathy.

They lamented the mayor for not making the nearby Mirza Para fire station functional.

MQM-P MNA Mohammad Wasim delivered an emotional speech in front of them lambasting journalists for their poor reporting. MPA Nasir Qureshi said: “The Mirza Para fire station remains inoperative for long. It had been functional until my previous term as MPA but during the caretaker government, Hyderabad mayor ordered its closure. Since then, it has been shut and that’s why firefighting vehicles had to be called from other stations and they reached the burning site late”. He said eight innocent children had lost their lives in the tragedy and many more people were fighting for survival.

Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro, accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Zain Memon visited LUH in the wee hours of Friday and inquired about the health of under treatment patients. Speaking to the media, he said he could confirm death of seven children in the tragedy.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2024