KARACHI: Anwar Khan Mandokhail has been waiting for his brother, Advocate Abdul Wali Khan Mandokhail, 22, to regain consciousness since Monday night when he was brought in, alongside 26 other patients, to the Aga Khan University Hospital. Standing outside the main corridor of the hospital’s orthopaedic unit, Mandokhail said there had been an outpouring of support — all the way from the military to the people in Quetta and Karachi — who lined up to donate blood. But he had a few questions to ask.

“We have repeatedly been told that this attack was mainly on an infrastructure project. Is my brother’s life, who received multiple injuries on the head, shoulders and lower torso and fights for his life right now, less than a project?” he said angrily, while some of his relatives asked him “not to speak too much”. One of the older relatives of Mandokhail then thanked the authorities, specifically Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, “for immediately sending a C-130 aircraft to shift the patients to Karachi in time”.

“There’s nothing more important to us than our son being alive.”

‘Quetta and Peshawar have been bleeding consistently’

The incident has shaken the lawyer’s community as well as the people of Quetta as around 70 people died in what the authorities call a suicide attack inside the Civil Hospital, Quetta.

The lawyers had gathered inside the hospital to receive the body of the Balochistan Bar Association (BBA) president, Bilal Anwar Kasi, who was shot dead early in the morning, said the younger brother of another advocate wounded in the blast, Malik Roohullah Kakar.

Speaking about the incident, Kakar, whose brother Advocate Malik Aminullah Kakar, 43, is admitted to the same unit, said his brother received a call soon after news of the BBA president’s murder was aired on news channels. “He told us that the lawyers had decided to not let Kasi’s murder go unnoticed, and were headed to the Civil Hospital to get his body, and proceed towards Governor House to protest.”

Fifteen minutes later, “a friend called me, asking me to switch on a news channel informing of a blast that had occurred inside the hospital,” said Kakar. “Since then I have been in a daze.”

Speaking further, Kakar said: “Balochistan has been pushed back 40 years since most of the people who died were topnotch lawyers of Quetta. They were fighting various cases related to the killing of Shia Hazaras in the city and across the province, murder, kidnapping for ransom, and property fraud.”

According to Ishaq Khan, another relative of Kakar, “Quetta and Peshawar are two cities that have been consistently bleeding. This is a forced sacrifice. How many youngsters should die and for what cause?”

Inside the orthopaedic unit, Babar Jadoon, 28, was lying unconscious while his cousin Mohammad Salaar met and consoled relatives and friends. “Both of his legs are seriously injured because of which he has been sedated and will continue to stay like that for the coming two days. But the good part is that the doctors are positive about his recovery,” Salaar added.

A provincial member of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Mohammad Bashir, was also present to console a family friend from Quetta who arrived here around midnight. Speaking about the last decade of violence across the country, he said: “Our citizens, specifically in Balochistan, fought and resisted the British Imperial Army and we will resist what comes next as well. I’m just amazed that the Research and Analysis Wing is targeting Quetta right now and we are unable to control their actions.”

Balochistan High Court Advocate Shaik Baloch, while speaking to Dawn from Quetta, said: “After the initial batch of injured were shifted to Karachi, another four were also being put onto a plane on Tuesday. But we were not sure whether they’d be able to survive the flight. There are 30 more patients on the waiting list who will be shifted to Karachi in the coming days.”

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016