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Published 13 Jul, 2007 12:00am

Untraced students’ parents face anguish

ISLAMABAD, July 12: Worried parents and families continued to arrive at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Thursday searching for their children missing from the start of the Lal Masjid conflict.

Majority of them were looking for male students associated with the mosque.

For them the agony continued even after eight tortuous days when they could not find their sons, brothers and nephews in the lists of injured, discharged and even the dead.

Dozens of family members have been running between hospitals, jails and until recently the new H-11 graveyard, where over 70 unidentified bodies were laid to rest.

Khanzada stood in front of the noticeboard placed outside the emergency entrance at Pims for the third time going through the list of the injured and the dead hoping to stumble upon his 17- year-old nephew Yar Badsha’s name.

“They are driving us to commit suicide. I will be grateful if the government handed over my nephew even if he is dead so that I can take his body back home for proper burial,” he said.

At first sight, Mohammad Wasil and Khattak Khan did not seem to have much in common. But neither Wasil from Charsadda nor Khattak from Mohmand Agency had seen their brothers from the day “Operation Silence” began.

“We have been searching in Adiala Jail and Polyclinic and Pims but could not trace our brothers. If they are not in jails and hospitals then where are they,” asked Wasil.

Khattak said he was not going back home without his younger brother, Khan Mohammad, 22.

Fareed had come from Swat trying to trace his brother, Rehmanullah who was a member of Ghazi’s security team. “I spent all day at H-11 graveyard but they tell us that the authorities have taken pictures and collected other details of the dead to show to families later,” he said. “We know he is dead. He came home a day before the operation started and told us that he wanted to die fighting for Islam,” Fareed added.

Amidst the stories of grief and loss over those injured and killed during the bloody operation and the pain of not knowing whether his nephew was alive or dead, Rajgul had been to the morgue at Pims twice searching for Nazar Alam who was a Jamia Fareedia student.

Rajgul, who had come all the way from Chillas, said, “They don’t provide us proper information. The authorities send us from a jail to a hospital. I don’t even know the roads and addresses. The taxi driver charged me Rs130 to bring me from Polyclinic to Pims,” he said, adding, “Why don’t they just tell us where our children are being kept?”

Following are the names of 20 persons who were either brought dead or expired at Pims between July 3 and 12.

Zakirullah, 35; Amraiz, 30; Mubarak Hussain, 45; Mohammad Rafi, 22; Ghulam Mohammad, Fayyaz, 43; Asbak Imtiaz, 18; Talib Hussain; Salehuddin, 28; Mohammad Zubair Zeshan; Mehmmod Naveed Ahmed, Akhter, 28; and three unidentified persons aged 25, 40 and 39.

Three charred bodies under the age of 25 were also shifted to Pims on Thursday.

Following 23 injured are admitted to the surgical ward IV of Pims: Haider Zaman, 35; Mohammad Saleem, 15; Abu Bakr, 21; Khudadad, 70; Sajjad Ahmad, 28; Rasheedullah, 25; Khan Wali, 25; Mohammad Tauqeer, 22; Nazakat Hussain, 19; Azizullah, 25; Mohammad Ilyas, 22; Allaudin, 24; Ibrar Shah, 25; Khalid, 20; Murad Ali, 25; Mohammad Hayat, 22; Mohammad Imran, 20; Saifullah, 21; Shahid Iqbal, 18; Syed Asif, 40; Ibrahim, 20; Nazmin, 22; and Saima Gul, 22.

Four injured admitted to the surgical ICU ward are: Niamatullah, 42; Ishaq, 15; Ghulam Abbas, 37, and Israr 38.

Raja Mohammad Munir, 45, and Bakht Mohammad, 40, are admitted to the surgical ward II. Others are: Noor Mohammad, surgical ward III, Yasir, 15, surgical ward VI, and Mohammad Waseem, 25, medical ICU ward.

The following injured persons were discharged from the hospital after their condition stabilised: Slama, Nargis, Aisha Bibi, Rizwana Kausar, Rashida Bibi, Abdullah, Syed Khan, Sabir Hussain, Rizwan, Fayaz, Yasir Rana, Abdul Ghaffar, Rashid Naseem, Mohammad Asghar, Saifur Rehman, Iftikhar, Mohammad Zulfiqar, Basharat Mohammad Ghafoor, Dawood Jan, Muhabat, Jehangir, Israf, Baja Haram, Nawaz, Omar Riaz, Yasir, Shaukat Waqar, Mohammad and Mohammad Sohail.

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