PESHAWAR: Recollecting the twin suicide bombings at a registration centre for IDPs in Kohat that left 41 persons dead, desperate attendants of the injured persons at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) said life and death had lost its meaning in the tribal region.
A visit to the LRH on Sunday revealed that a number of the wounded including a boy were struggling for life in various wards. The 13-year-old boy, Minhad, having sustained critical injuries in one of the blasts, was in such a critical state that he was shifted to the general intensive care unit. Minhad went to the registration point established in the Kacha Pakha Union Council on the outskirts of Kohat for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) along with his mother.
He was near the spot when the first bomber detonated suicide vest near the queues of the IDPs waiting for registration, his cousin Ashfaq Ali said. He added that the mother of Minhad remained unhurt but he received fatal injuries.
He said most of the blast victims belonged to the Manikhel tribe displaced from lower part of Orakzai Agency and now settled in Hangu district. Expressing grief over the incident, he said: “The blood of innocent tribesmen has become the cheapest thing in the tribal areas as we do not know the reason and our fault for which we are killed.”
When asked about the condition of Minhad, Dr Mustafa in the ward said he was still in a critical state. In the Neurosurgery Trauma ward, there were two other victims identified as Ashfaq, a schoolteacher, and Kamran Ali, a wage earner.
Tending to Ashfaq lying unconscious on the hospital bed, his relative Shahadat Ali said: “When the first blast ripped through the crowd of IDPs, Ashfaq along with his 18-year-old son Mussadiq rushed to the spot. They started retrieving the bodies and the injured. But after seven minutes there was another suicide attack, killing Mussadiq on the spot and injuring his father.” He added that Mussadiq was a student of intermediate at a local college. He said Ashfaq had not yet been informed about his son’s death.
In the surgical ward, Taj Muhammad, Syed Shakeel Hussain and Niqab Ali were under-treatment. Niqab Ali, a schoolteacher, said he was passing through the area when he was caught in the blast.
Recalling the incident, he said the policemen deployed for security were inside the building of the Kacha Pakha Union Council and there were no security arrangements for queues of IDPs waiting outside. He said the tragedy that claimed the precious lives could have been averted with proper security arrangements.
The patients and their attendants claimed nobody from the government had yet visited them at the hospital to console them and enquire after their health. “Taliban are punishing because we are pro-government but the government functionaries are oblivious of our plight,” one of them said.
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