ISLAMABAD - Despite the passage of five days after Islamabad vegetable market attack, neither police force has taken any measures to secure the biggest market of the twin cities from any future mishap, nor any official has even bothered to contact the families of the victims.
Terror still prevails in fruit market, as Sunday is normally a very busy day for this market but very few customers were seen in the market. The main road of fruit market was giving a deserted look and deep silence was prevailing at the sight of the blast. The place where bomb exploded is still wrapped in yellow tapes. “Business has reduced to half. The people are scared to come to the market after the blast and that’s why today’s prices of wholesale market remained low,” Daood Agha, a wholesale trader, told The Nation on Sunday. “No security measures are taken by Islamabad police or any other agency,” Agha, son of the president Wholesale Fruit Market, said.
“After the blast the business has reduced. For example, 10,000 crates of guava were traded before the blast but now they have shrunk to 5,000,” Sher Khan told The Nation. Khan who hardly escaped the blast was still in trauma. “I cannot forget the human limbs flying in the air; cries and blood,” Khan said with a pale face. “The victims were very poor people and most of them were vendors,” he said. He regretted that no government authority contacted the families of victims.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed police after the blast to ensure strict security measures. But his words have not transformed into action. Local media reported more threats to Islamabad but police bosses are indifferent to the security of the market. The whole market is still as vulnerable as it was before the blast. In absence of any boundary wall, police guard or even barbed wire, it could be an easy target of any possible future terror attack.
There are more than 50 police check posts in the capital but in the fruit market, where hundreds of people gather every day, not even a single police guard has been deployed.
One of the blast victims, Umar Baaz Khan, lived in a slum close to the fruit market. Imtiaz Khan, 18-year-old son of Umar Baaz Khan, was preparing his horse cart to go and earn food for his family when this scribe approached him. He said nobody had contacted them yet, adding the family arranged funeral of Umar itself. Umar migrated from Dir after operation started in his area. With few relatives, it was hard for him to get money for his father’s funeral.
Responding to a question, Zar Gulab Khan, a neighbour of Imtiaz, said, “You are asking about aid, they left the dead body on the road and went away.” He added that the dead body was brought in an ambulance and the ambulance staff handed over the dead body on the road and went away.
It is worth mentioning here that after the blast, both the president and prime minister issued condolence massages. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced Rs 500,000 as compensation for families of those who passed away in the blast and Rs 75,000 for each injured. “We required money for burial and food for my family after the death of my father. It was very difficult to shift my father’s body to my village in Dir,” Imtiaz said. “My mother is ill but I have no means to take her to the doctor,” Imtiaz said with eyes full of tears.” Will someone help us in this time of need?” he asked.