By Tauseef-ur-Rahman
Instead of helping the victims and taking them to hospital, such people remain busy in depriving the victims of their valuables including cell phones and money, etc. While God-fearing people remain busy in carrying the victims to hospital, thieves and pickpockets take advantage. The dead are no exception.
Telling the shocking aspect of such tragedies, Ayaz Khan, a resident of the city who lost family members in the October 28 deadly blast of Meena Bazaar, said some stonehearted people tried to steal gold bangles, rings, mobile phones and watches from the dead and injured people. He said the target of such people were primarily women, as they usually wear gold ornaments.
“When the pickpockets see that a dead lady is wearing jewellery, they pretend to be their relatives and start ostensibly crying for her. During the time of shifting her to hospital, they steal the jewellery,” he said.
The aggrieved citizen said a person was caught in the Meena Bazaar tragedy by a driver of an ambulance who was trying to steal the gold bangles of a woman killed in the blast. The grieving citizen said the lady was his wife. The driver stopped the car and beat up the person and handed him to police, he said.
These heartless people not only target such people at the site of the incident but also remain busy in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of various hospitals of the city, particularly Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the biggest health facility in the public sector.
A doctor, who worked in the A&E department of the LRH, told this correspondent that many patients complained about such incidents where thieves and pickpockets deprive them of their valuables.
Quoting a woman who was brought after suffering injuries in the Meena Bazaar blast, the doctor said soon after the blast a person came to her and asked about her condition and when she told him that she was alive and needed to be taken to hospital, the man ripped out her earrings which hurt her ears and then asked other people to come and pick up the injured woman.
In another incident, a man who was injured in Khyber Bazaar blast on October 9, told doctors that after the blast he was half-conscious and was lying on the road when a person came and took Rs10,000 and a passport from his pocket.
The staff of the hospital including cops also fall prey to these thieves. Talking to The News, director A&E department of LRH Dr Sheraz Afridi said that while he along with his staff was shifting a body into coffin, a pickpocket attempted to deprive a staff member of his wallet, which they foiled and handed the person to police.
When contacted, an official of the police post of LRH admitted that pickpockets do come during such tragedies and deprive people of mobile phones and other valuables. However, the police on duty try their best to keep a vigil on these people and apprehend them, he said.
It was learnt that in one shift of eight hours only three police guards perform duty at the A&E department. The hospital administration has demanded more security from the home department but to no avail.“Can the human beings stoop so low that waling in the air due to death and grief, they indulge in the criminal pursuits of collecting valuables?” asked Masood Jan, a human rights activist.