Better coordination saved several lives after bombing

PESHAWAR: Better coordination among departments of the government helped save several precious lives of cops injured in the Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines suicide bombing as most of the blast victims were quickly rescued from the mosque and shifted to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar.

Since the caretaker government does not have any proper setup for coordination as the ministers have not been allotted portfolios, Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash and Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Khan Mahsud supervised the operation.

According to senior government officials, the commissioner led the rescue work by involving different relevant departments that enabled the rescue workers to shift the injured quickly to the nearby hospitals.

The majority of the blast victims were taken to the LRH , where its spokesman Mohammad Asim told The News that 100 people had lost lives so far while 57 others were still under treatment at the hospital. He said seven of the injured were still in critical condition, fearing that the death toll could rise.

According to officials, Deputy Commissioner Shafiullah Khan, Additional Deputy Commissioner Imran Yousafzai and other government and police officials remained present at the site of the suicide attack and supervised the rescue operation.

“Since many people were trapped under the mosque building and were crying for help, Riaz Mahsud arranged 10 doctors and enabled them to go to the fallen building to save the lives of the injured there. There were touching scenes as the doctors had to cut the fingers of some of the people to save their lives and pull them out of the debris,” an eyewitness told The News.

He said it was a major terrorist attack and many people could have lost lives but better coordination by the officials headed by the commissioner and his team saved them.

According to government officials, the caretaker government was not prepared to deal with the situation. The caretaker cabinet members have been sworn in but they are yet to start work as Chief Minister Azam Khan had not allotted them portfolios.