Most of them were dancing on the streets and atop vehicles, celebrating the arrival of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto (BB) on October 18. However, all celebrations came to an abrupt halt after the twin bomb blasts occurred — exposing the less-than-satisfactory security arrangements — which resulted in over 150 casualties and left more or less 500 people injured.
Now, two weeks after the blasts occurred and the injured (many of them activists) were admitted in to hospitals, many have been discharged while others are on their way to recovery with the complaint that not a single party leader visited them during their stay at the hospital or sent their good wishes.
Even then, some young party workers say that they have no regrets. Consider Dost Mohammad, 19, who is still admitted at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), who said that he has no regrets about getting injured. Dost, a dedicated worker of the PPP is a car mechanic by profession. The injured is the eldest among his eight siblings and the only helping hand of his father, Dur Mohammad.
Dur Mohammad told The News that they received Rs5,000 from the party fund three days after the incident. Dur, 40, is a loader at Gulbai but the nature of his job is not permanent, and as he mostly stays at the hospital with his son, it has become quite difficult for him to make it to work.
He added that his son was first taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and then shifted to CHK where the doctors put two steel plates across his right leg. Dost has a compound fracture in his leg and the doctors will monitor his progress for a month. Till then, he is supposed to remain in bed.
Abdul Ghani, 35, is the father of three children and is waiting for an operation to remove a ball-bearing from his left knee. He said that he has not been visited by the local party leadership, nor has he been paid any compensation. According to him, the doctors might operate on him next week.
Ghani, who is a welder by profession, said that his younger brother and father are looking after his family. He has to rely on a walking stick to move about and according his doctor, so far his movement has been quite restricted. Ghani said that he was brought to the JPMC where the doctors gave him some tablets with instructions to use them on time and visit them later.
Haji Yaqoob Baloch, another victim of the October 18 blasts, claimed said that his party seems to be least bothered about the condition of all those workers who got wounded on that fateful night. Baloch, who was admitted to the AO Clinic, belongs to Lyari, Khadda Market, and has been affiliated with the party for the last 20 years now.
He said that when the procession reached Karsaz, the first blast occurred and he was unscathed. It was during the second explosion that his right leg sustained severe injuries. He said that after the incident, there were mutilated body parts all around him and a wave of terror and grief had engulfed the procession.
He said that at first he was taken by the party workers to JPMC but given the large number of victims that were brought to the hospital before him, he told his family to shift him to CHK.
Earlier, 15 people had been admitted to the Orthopaedics Ward II, CHK, and Jamil, 35, was the last one to be discharged on Thursday.
List of party victims
• Manzoor, 35, from Lahore, was the first to be discharged from CHK
