LAHORE - The Punjab government has declared an emergency in all city hospitals with doctors working round the clock for the treatment of injured victims of the Punjab Assembly blast.

Ganga Ram Hospital faced the main influx of victims with eleven bodies and 60 injured shifted in within hours of the attack. Services Hospital took in 16 injured victims and at least four bodies including those of Chief Traffic Officer Captain (r) Mubeen and SSP (Operations) Zahid Akram Gondal alongside 26 injured were moved to Mayo Hospital.

At Ganga Ram Hospital, hoards of family members stood outside emergency rooms, waiting to hear news of their children and relatives.

In one corner, a mother reached out to anybody who could help with news of her 17 year old son, Shahbaz Waheed.

“He’s still in school,” she wept.

Outside the main operation theatre, fights erupted among relatives of victims, as they struggled to remain patient. The hallways and floors were crowded with some members of the police present, and security was tightened going into the emergency wards. As bloods appeals were announced, crowds of men and women lined the entryways to donate blood.  

The closure of Ganga Ram hospital’s emergency gate caused some trouble for ambulances carrying the injured and only the main gate was kept open in the interests of security.

At Services Hospital, Mohsin Abbass, 31, a traffic warden, with minor injuries to his arm said, “I was busy in duty just five or six yards away from where the suicide bomber blew himself up.”

“Captain Mubeen said to me, ‘Remove the barbed wire,’ and that was when the blast happened.”   Those are thought to be the last words of CTO Ahmad Mubeen who arrived from one side of the Avari hotel and was close to the end of his negotiations with the protestors.

“There were dead bodies all around me. Everyone in front of me and behind me had died it seemed. I was the only one left,” said Mohsin, his eyes still full of horror.

“Captain Mobeen was controlling the traffic himself,” Mohsin said. “He’d parked his car to one side and was on foot.”

Abdur Rehman, 34, a camera man for Aaj TV, said “I was getting footage of negotiations between the two parties when the blast took place.”

“I was standing with the vehicle that carries the sound-system for the protesting chemists,” he continued. “This saved my life.”

As Ali Shan, 17, a worker at a Lohari chemist shop lay unconscious, his father, a rikshaw driver stood over his bed. “My son has serious injuries on his chest and lower body but the doctors say he is stable,” he said. “But his friend Omar lost his life on the spot.”

Lahore Mayor Mubashar Javed visited Gang Ram Hospital while provincial health minister Khwaja Imran Nazir visited Mayo and Services Hospital. Lahore Deputy-Commissioner Abdullah Khalid Sumbal and senior police officials also made hospital rounds.