Karachi Airport Attack: Bodies Of Seven Trapped Employees Recovered

The rescue teams late on Monday night recovered the bodies of seven persons who had been trapped in cold of cargo following the attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, Pakistan Tribune reported. In a gruesome example of criminal negligence, the Civil Aviation Authority had concluded the rescue operation without evocating the seven local employees of a foreign company who had taken refuge in the cargo complex but couldn’t come out after terrorists set the cold storage of firm ablaze. Early from Monday morning to evening, the families of employees repeatedly tried to get information about their loves ones but authorities failed to respond them satisfactorily. Irked over the attitude of authorities, the families of victims staged protest on Faisal Avenue and demanded immediate rescue operation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took serious notice of the media reports about trapped employees and directed Army and rescue teams to launch rescue operation again. The operation was launched at about 10:00 PM. The teams of Army Engineering Core, CAA, Rangers and others participated in the rescue operation.

The bodies were recovered by destroying the wall of the cargo terminal, rescue sources said. The bodies of shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where they were identified as Saif, Nabeel, Fareed, Sultan, Farhan and Inayat. Hundreds of citizens flocked at cargo terminal site during the rescue operation and chanted slogan against CAA for its criminal negligence, saying the lives of employees could’ve been saved by launching operation early on Monday. The families of employees said that the people trapped in cold storage kept pleading for help continuously through mobile phones but all of their efforts went unheeded. A CAA official, speaking on the condition on anonymity, told a private channel that the authority had learnt early in the morning that some employees of a private company have been trapped inside cargo terminal and Manager Karachi Airport Afsar Malik had also informed Director CAA in this regard but all the authorities remained busy in providing protocol to visiting VIP officials and didn’t pay attention towards trapped employees. The latest deaths propelled causality toll in the incident to 24. 11 Airport Security Force (ASF) personnel, one Ranger, one Policeman and one employee each from PIA and CAA embraced martyrdom and all the 10 assailants were killed in six-hour siege at the biggest airport of Pakistan.

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