BAHAWALPUR: The country observed this year’s Eid in mourning as death toll from an oil tanker explosion rose to 153. Earlier, dozens of people had lost their lives in terrorist attacks in Quetta and Parachinar.
Scores of people injured in Sunday’s tragic incident in Bahawalpur remain in critical condition at burn units across public hospitals of the Punjab province. Dozens of grief-stricken relatives waited outside hospitals in Bahawalpur, the nearest major city to the disaster site, to claim bodies of their loved ones as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the area hospitals after Sunday’s accident.
Several of these relatives tried approaching the prime minister to register their protest but they were stopped in their pursuit by security personnel.
“The day of Eid has become a day of mourning and pain for us,” Sharif told media outside Bahawal Victoria Hospital. He added he has ordered an inquiry in the incident and announced compensation of Rs2 million each for families of the deceased and Rs1 million each for those of the injured.
Eidul Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan. A day before Eid, a tanker carrying some 40,000 litres of fuel from Karachi to Lahore overturned on main highway near Ahmedpur East. The accident quickly drew scores of people from a nearby village, many armed with whatever containers they could find, despite warnings from the driver and police. By the time it exploded, a large crowd had gathered at the scene to scavenge for fuel.
The fireball following the explosion engulfed the crowd as well as dozens of vehicles. “The death toll has climbed to 153, and many are in critical condition in various hospitals in Bahawalpur and Multan,” Javed Iqbal, head of BVH told the AFP.
The tanker driver has been taken into custody. He had been charged with careless driving, senior police official Raja Riffat told the AFP. He quoted the driver as saying that he had lost control of the vehicle while avoiding a speeding van coming from the opposite direction. The driver told the police that he had apparently also warned people to stay away from the truck because he feared it would catch fire, “but nobody listened”. Relatives waiting at the hospital could not contain their grief. Mumtaz Mai, a 40-year-old widow, said she had lost her two nephews in the accident. She said she had been living with them since the death of her spouse. “My world has come to an end,” a weeping Mai told AFP. She added that the bodies at the hospital had been burned so badly that she was unable to recognise those of her nephews. Muhammad Ayub, in his early 50s, lost his brother and nephew in the tragic accident.
“We have been doomed. How could we celebrate Eid. We cannot even recognise bodies of our loved ones,” he lamented.
When Bahawalpur accident made headlines on Sunday, the country had already been grieving for those who lost their lives in terrorist attacks in Quetta and Parachinar.
Published in Daily Times, June 29th, 2017.
