Journalists that were in the line of fire
Karachi:October 18 left in its wake untold stories in the lives of family members whose loved ones either left for eternal bode or were left on crutches. Among these affected are the mediafolk on the beds of the Aga Khan Hospital.
Although their management did a lot for their treatment, anxiety still prevails as a cameramen and a reporter, though currently stable, face injuries of critical nature.
Syed Abid Ali, cameraman of a local English TV Channel, had been assigned coverage of the PPP’s rally on the Baloch Colony bridge but his journalistic flair forced him to move a head and he left his original position to the site where this incident later took place.
While narrating his account, he said that he was standing on the media truck arranged by the PPP when, all of a sudden, a loud bang was heard. Ultimately, all the cameraman, including himself, rushed to the site and he took the footage. He ran towards his organisation’s vehicle which was parked on the side and was viewing the video recording when another explosion occurred. In this second incident, he said, nearly all the cameraman were caught and he too was hit. He recalled that the screams of people could be heard everywhere along with human flesh littering the place.
Everybody was screaming for help and only one Chippa ambulance was there to carry the bodies and injured to the hospitals. Describing his situation, he said that he too was wandering around for help but nobody was there to heed his cries. People declined to help him, ostensibly because he was carrying a camera. However, despite his critical condition, he managed to reach an ambulance that was overloaded, and, having no option left, he said he boarded the van, as there was no other help that could cart him to the hospital. Seeing the dead bodies and the injured, he says he forgot his pain even though he was in a semi-conscious condition. He called another colleague of the foreign news channel, who was also admitted in the hospital, and asked him to inform his family and his organisation, which he did.
The ambulance, he said, took all the injured to the Liaquat National Hospital, where, after initial treatment, they were either discharged or asked to wait till the doctors visit. The attitude of the hospital towards the serious patient compelled family members to shift him to the Aga Khan University Hospital where all expenses were borne by his management.
Syed Abid Ali Bukhari who was married last year on August 2 is a resident of Surjani. Though his condition is stable, he will still be kept in the hospital for 15 days. The improvement, he said, would take another two to three months.
His wife Sarwat said that he was given 18 bottles of blood and is the sole bread earner of the family. However, his management has given all-out support, including financial, she said. Ironically enough, none of the office-bearers of the Association of TV Journalists even stopped over at the hospital.
Two other media persons, a cameraman and the another reporter of the same foreign news channel, M Shahzad Siddiqui and another M Salman, who was shifted for ICU, were under treatment in the same hospital.
Source: The News
Date:10/24/2007
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