“For me, everyday is the same day as i arrive daily at Cantt Station from Hyderabad to earn money to support my Hyderabad-based family. Today, however; they would be waiting for me and I am eager to be with them as well,” said a cobbler who was sitting at a footpath near to where the ill-fated bus exploded with a bang outside Cantt railway station on Saturday.
“I was repairing the shoe of a passenger, who was on board the ill-fated bus, when I heard an explosion and saw a ball of fire erupting,” said Vijay Kumar, the cobbler, who sustained burn injuries. He added that “some people ran towards me after a few minutes of the explosion to extinguish fire on me but some others were dragging them away from me as they were afraid of another possible blast at the spot. This is a busy place with hustle and bustle and noise of vehicles going up-country. It is impossible to monitor activities of suspected personnel”
With tears in her eyes, the mother of Vijay Kumar was standing outside the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Surgical Ward, which was blocked for visitors due to treatment of blast victims, told the scribe that she had three sons and five daughters and Vijay was the sole bread earner of the family. She said “I was waiting for Vijay since morning as I have to pay off the monthly bills of the shopkeepers and he told me via phone yesterday that he will come to house on Saturday and I could not imagine that I will see him in hospital”.
An injured passenger talking to the scribe said that “I have decided to shift my family to Sargodah, due to the prevailing law and order situation in Karachi and a blast in a bus in which I was on board has proved that I made an informed decision as this mega city is no more an ideal place for residence. I was leaving for Sargodah to find a proper place to shift my family from Karachi and the bus exploded and I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness I found myself in the hospital surrounded by paramedics”. Moreover, the owner of Café Attock, a hotel located near the blast site, told the scribe that he was sitting at the counter his hotel when the passenger bus standing in front of the hotel exploded. The blast was so intense that the customers standing at the cash counter fell on the ground of hotel. He added that “the hotel has separate arrangements for tea outside where my waiters were when the bus exploded and some of them are critically injured”.
