Families in despair

KARACHI: Unable to accept the bitter truth, a woman refused to leave the mortuary at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) as she kept looking through the pile of bodies for her husband, Shafi Mohammad. However, the worker, who was among the hundreds of people killed in the Baldia Town factory fire, had been burnt beyond recognition.

As rescue workers from various organisations brought in more bodies, the relatives of the victims looked on. Most of them could not identify their own loved ones as their bodies were completely charred.

Waheeda Shafi later recognised her husband from the mobile phone rescue workers found beside his body. "I still don't know whether it's him," she said to the rescue worker, who had by that time heard a similar response from many other families.

Ameen Memon, an Edhi worker, said that most of the rescue team burnt their hands while trying to carry the smoldering bodies recovered from the factory.

"The bodies were iron hot. We got burnt even if we tried to carry them to the ambulances with the help of some cloth. The skin of the victims started peeling off and in some cases, their body parts turned into ash," Memon said.

While the search continued for the bodies, Memon said that some of the workers were overcome by emotion as they saw a mother frantically looking for her sons at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. "All three were burnt alive," he added.

As the injured and the dead bodies poured in, the hospital staff faced great difficulties in making room for them. Amidst the heavy rain and the huge crowd of relatives and onlookers that had gathered, rescue workers from various organisations tried getting the bodies inside the JPMC mortuary. While the staff tried to create space inside, some of the bodies that were kept outside created a foul stench, making it difficult for families to identify their loved ones.

Requesting anonymity, an official of the JPMC said that the hospital only received dead bodies as the injured were either shifted to the Civil Hospital or the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Since Tuesday night, 73 bodies were brought to JPMC alone, an officer with the District Administration South said. That alone, added to the cacophony of the hospital, as doctors on leave were called in and most already at work did overtime.

Ticking off the names on a list, Officer Ghulam Qadir said that 18 of the 41 bodies that had been identified were handed over to the families. "However, the death toll is expected to rise," he warned. Over at the Civil Hospital, a total of 80 bodies were received, creating a shortage of space at the mortuary.

The head of the emergency ward, Dr. Tariq Kamal Ayubim said that this incident was that worst he had ever seen. "Our mortuaries usually have space, but never have we received so many dead bodies within a span of two days.