SUKKUR/HYDERABAD: A powerful suicide blast ripped through a Muharram procession in Lashari Muhalla in Jacobabad, killing 22 people, mostly children, and injuring more than 40 others on Friday.
The town was handed over to the army soon after the tragic incident. An emergency was declared in all hospitals of the town and announcements were made through mosques and Imambargahs for donation of blood.
While the processions taken out to pay homage to martyrs of Karbala concluded peacefully in major cities and towns, the carnage in Jacobabad which followed a similar tragic incident in the Bolan district of Balochistan a day earlier marred the performance of law-enforcement agencies which had made adequate security arrangements across the country.
According to sources, the mourning procession was returning from Shershah-Jo-Per to Quetta Road in Lashari Muhalla when the suicide attack took place, causing suspension of electricity supply to the entire area.
Pieces of human flesh were lying all over the place.
Sixteen of those killed in the blast were identified as Ali Raza Lashar, 26; Nisar Ahmed Brohi, 10; Mashooq Ali Sarmastani, 9, and his brother Mohammad Qasim; Habibullah Jatoi, 30; Lal Dino, 25, and his brother Zahid Hussain Jakhrani; Aqsa, 6, and her 18-month-old sister Saba; Ali Raza Mughal, 10; Sikandar Ali Shaikh, 9, and his brother Asghar Ali Shaikh, 7; Sajjad Ali, 8, and his brother Farman Ali (nephews of a leader of the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party); Mohammad Ali Talani and Niaz Jakhrani.
The dead and the injured were taken to the Civil Hospital and the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences, where condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical.
The entire Jacobabad town was in grip of grief and anger because of the killing of innocent children and was completely shut down.
Although emergency was declared in hospitals, there were reports that doctors and paramedical staff were not available there because of which some seriously injured people succumbed to their injuries. The situation led to a protest and ransacking of one of the hospitals by angry activists of different Shia organisations.