A deadly blast in the middle of the Muharram procession on M.A. Jinnah road has caused chaos and mayhem. Unbearable scenes of death and blood are everywhere. Dawn.com attempts to describe what people present at the scene tried to reconstruct. If you were there and know of any one injured or dead, help us find their families. Write to us at http//forum.dawn.com/2009/12/28/terrorists-target-shia-procession-in-karachi/
“I was only 50 feet away from the site of the blast which took place just after Jama Cloth market,” said a completely shaken 45-year-old Muzaffar Hussain. “God saved me somehow. I saw many bodies strewn all over the place immediately after the explosion.”
Hussain, whose clothes were dripping with blood, explained to his own horror that the stains were from the blood of other people around him which went flying all over the place. “If I hadn't sat on the footpath just a moment before the explosion took place, I don't think I would have been here telling you this story.”
Actor Sajid Hasan was coming out of the smoke billowed site. “My whole family comprising my three brothers, sister and nephews were with me when the blast took place. I still can't find my elder brother and some of my other family members,” he said sounding desperate. “I myself have been hit by shrapnel,” he informed as he lifted his shirt; he was wounded, but hardly realized. “My nephew has been badly hurt and I hope someone has managed to shift him to the hospital.”
Describing the scene moments before the blast took place, Sajid said “The procession was moving ahead smoothly. We passed by a camp set up by a Memon merchant and I stopped to have a word with an old man sitting at the roadside. When the blast took place, I felt something sharp hit me. I instinctively fell on the ground immediately. When I got up, I saw the old man lying dead in front of me.”
“There was a complete pandemonium and chaos thereafter. A dark cloud of smoke had engulfed the place and the first thing that came to my mind was to find out where was my family.” Sajid added that he heard sounds of gunfire and screams almost immediately after the blast.
It was reported later that his brother and sister-in-law both had expired in the tragedy.
Taveer Faruqi, 50, says he was sitting inside a camp just 50 yards from the place where the blast took place. “It happened all of a sudden. For the first few minutes I couldn't make sense of what had happened. My ear drums had been shattered. All I could see then was smoke and fire.”
Despite the blast, the Muharram procession continued to carry on towards its destination. Meters away from the explosion, a number of vehicles had been set ablaze. Cars belonging to the police were also among these. A paramedic at the scene reported that his ambulance had been attacked. “I had made around eight rounds of picking up the dead and injured from the site to take them to the nearby civil hospital, when suddenly we came across a mob in a narrow street.” The paramedic requesting anonymity said that after much pleading they were allowed to leave.
Near the site of the blast, the Lunda market, was blazing. People gathered nearby said it's been around half an hour since the fire had been raging but no fire brigades arrived. Families living in apartments near the market were standing helplessly in their balconies. Elderly men standing outside feared the fire might engulf their homes.
Inside the Civil hospital, another chaos was unfolding. Around 17 dead bodies were kept in a room where crowds had pushed themselves inside and started beating their chests in mourning. More than 40 injured were brought to the hospital, most of whom were later shifted to better facilities at Liaquat National and Aga Khan by their families.
Policeman Abrar was among the injured. he too had suffered a shrapnel wound on his back. “We had formed a line right in front of the procession. Everything was going well. We had cleared the area an hour before. When we reached the Light House, an explosion took place somewhere in the middle. Even though I was way ahead, I was hit by a shrapnel and fell down.”
A 12-year-old boy Izmatullah, who told his father's name with difficulty, was writhing in pain at a ward in Civil. Son of Mohammad Sarwar, he lives in Macchar Colony and had come to witness the Muharram procession along with a friend. With blood still not dry on his wounds on the head, neck and leg, he screamed now and then “I want to be with my mother.” A nurse pierced a drip into his tiny arm.
A woman outside the ward was wailing for her son, Yawar Abbas, 12, who she said had gone missing immediately after the blast.
Aamir, 18, was being operated upon at the hospital for a gunshot wound in the stomach. His brother told me that Aamir was hit in the firing that took place after the blast. Mehbood, another 18 year old, had his leg crushed in the stampede, which ensued after the blast. Such was the reported aftermath.
Safdar Shah, introduced himself as one of the organisers, among the volunteers leading the Muharram procession in Karachi. His was the most harrowing account. “I saw a human heart fall in front of me when the blast took place,” said Safdar crying inconsolably.
“I had promised the families of participants that nothing would happen to their loved ones. I assured them that I would be the first one to die if anything happened, but here I am, still alive,” he said.
“People have been blown to bits. Even animals aren't killed the way people, including women and children, die here.”
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