Tanker inferno kills 157

Illegal kidney trade up

MULTAN, Pakistan, June 27, (Agencies): Pakistan’s prime minister cut short a trip abroad to rush to the side of victims of a massive fuel tanker fire as authorities on Monday raised the death toll to 157.

The truck, carrying some 25,000 liters (6,600 gallons) of gasoline, was traveling from the southern port city of Karachi to Lahore when the driver lost control and crashed on a highway outside the town of Bahawalpur early on Sunday.

Alerted by an announcement over a loudspeaker at a local mosque, scores of villagers rushed to the scene to collect the spilled fuel. When the fire broke out, the villagers were engulfed in flames, many burned beyond recognition.

Dr Nahid Ahmed at the Nishter Hospital in Multan, about 100 kms (60 miles) away, said four of the victims that were brought from Bahawalpur had died overnight, bringing the death toll to 157. Ahmed said 50 more severely burned victims were being treated at his hospital.

Rescue official Mohammad Baqar at the Bahawalpur hospital said 20 more victims were transported on Monday by a military C-130 plane to Lahore for better medical care.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who visited the Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur on Monday, ordered that more of those most critically hurt be transferred to bigger hospitals in the area, Baqar said.

Console

Sharif cut short his trip abroad and rushed back home, reaching Bahawalpur on Monday to visit the victims and console the affected families. Sharif also announced 2 million rupees — almost $20,000 — as financial assistance for each family that lost someone in the highway inferno. Sharif also handed over checks of 1 million rupees ($10,000) for each burn victim being treated at the hospital in Bahawalpur.

“This is not compensation, no compensation is possible for precious human life, but it is to help the affected families in distress,” Sharif said.

Many of the bodies will have to be identified through DNA testing, said Baqar.

“I have never seen anything like it in my life. Victims trapped in the fireball. They were screaming for help,” said Abdul Malik, a police officer who was among the first to arrive at the scene.

When the flames subsided, he said, “we saw bodies everywhere. So many were just skeletons. The people who were alive were in really bad shape.”

The dead included men, women and children. The disaster struck on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that follows the holy month of Ramadan. While Saudi Arabia and most other Muslim countries started celebrating the holiday Sunday, Pakistanis are marking it on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah Sunday sent a cable of condolences to Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain over the victims of an oil tanker fire in Bahawalpur city of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, which left scores of people killed or wounded.

In the cable, His Highness the Amir prayed Allah Almighty to grant mercy to the deceased, and wished those injured speed recovery.

Two cables of similar sentiments were sent to the Pakistani president by His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

When Pakistani authorities burst into a makeshift hospital in Lahore this year, doctors were caught midway through two illegal kidney transplants, the local donors and Omani clients still unconscious on the tables.

The doctors were allowed to finish the operation then arrested, along with their assistants and the Omanis, in a raid Pakistani authorities say is a turning point in their battle against organ trafficking.

Pakistan has long been an international hub for the illegal kidney trade, but medical and local authorities complain they have been unable to act against the practice, frustrated by ineffective enforcement policies and what they perceive as a lack of political will to crack down.

Organ donation is legal so long as it is voluntary, given without duress or the exchange of money.

Pakistani clerics have ruled it Islamic, but a lack of awareness and the pervasive belief that it is taboo for Muslims mean there is a shortage of those willing to donate.

The limited supply, observers say, sees Pakistan’s wealthy routinely exploit its millions of poor with the help of an organ trade mafia.

Kidneys can be bought so cheaply that overseas buyers are also tapped in, largely from the Gulf, Africa and the United Kingdom.