They were like fish in a barrel

Twenty one year old Asad Khan is fortunate to have survived two bullets, a broken arm and severe bruises on the face in the early morning attack on prisons department trainees in the Rasul Park area of Lahore. Lying in the surgical ward of Services Hospital, he is still not out of the trauma and could not even speak. A doctor had just held a psychiatric counselling session with him.
“It’s too early for him to talk to you, he has witnessed his fellows being killed in the morning,” Asad’s uncle responded after saying something to him in Pushto (probably asking him if he could talk, to which he closed his eyes and shook his head.)
“Not all the patients were fired at. Many of them had to jump from the second and the third floor to save themselves and are only suffering from minor injuries,” the on-duty doctor said while talking to Pakistan Today, adding that whether their injuries were minor or severe, they were nonetheless lucky to have survived this attack unlike their 9 friends, all of whom were from the KP.
“We were all sleeping when we heard gun shots outside. I had a gut feeling that it was a terrorist attack. My friend, who got hit twice, rushed to our room and closed the door.
We leaned against the wall but we were still hit in the firing spree. We are already fighting the same monster [terrorism] back home [in the KP] and our colleagues unfortunately met a similar fate here in Lahore,” M Ameer, a trainee in the same ward said, adding that he and his friends were strangers in the city, so much so that they did not even know their way around.
Ameer’s friend, Yasir from Kashmir, was fighting for his life in the hospital’s ICU, having received five bullets one of which passed right through his head. His entire family was waiting outside the ICU praying for his good health.
“The trainees were made to stay in this hostel without any security.
They were not even given a stick to defend themselves. The jail commandant of Lahore is responsible for ruining 13 families and the Punjab government should have made proper arrangements if it was hosting a training session,” a relative said, further complaining that no one from the Punjab police or government had visited the Services Hospital.
“All these officers were very friendly. The got us groceries and they played with our children too,” said Farzana, who lived next door, adding “It is a pity that the government had not taken any measures to protect them. They were good men.”