Two attacks in 48 hours: 7 more bodies of Karachi airport workers found
11 Jun 2014 12:45 AM IST
Karachi airport workers hid in a cold-storage facility during a Taliban attack
A man mourns the death of his family member, at a morgue in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Pakistani airport authorities found seven bodies in a burned building at the Karachi international airport on Tuesday. (Photo: AP)
Karachi: Pakistani authorities Tuesday recovered the burnt remains of seven Karachi airport workers who hid in a cold-storage facility during a Taliban attack, as one tearful relative recounted his nephew's final phone call.
Shahid Khan said his 32-year-old nephew Inayat's last words were to his wife, whom he called at 11:25pm (1825 GMT) on Sunday night as the raid by militants armed with guns, grenades and rocket launchers began.
"(The nephew) said: 'The attack is on our office, they are showering the office with rockets and bullets'. "That was the last contact and then the line got cut -- but we did not know it would be forever," Khan, an elderly Pashtun, told AFP while sobbing.
Inayat Khan was among seven people who locked themselves in the cold-storage room, which was adjacent to one of the entry points used by the 10 Taliban fighters, and caught fire during the attack.
The workers' grisly deaths brought the toll from Monday's all-night siege to 37 including the attackers.
Families of the victims had staged a protest on a main road in Karachi Monday night demanding authorities find their relatives, saying they had been in contact with them by telephone.
The assault extinguished a nascent peace process and raised questions about how the Taliban were able to penetrate the airport serving Pakistan's economic hub.
It was followed by a second attack on a security post outside the airport on Tuesday by at least two gunmen, but the men quickly escaped and there were no casualties.
"We have recovered seven dead bodies from the cold storage that was on fire," provincial health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed told reporters earlier Tuesday, adding one airport security guard was still missing.
Eleven airport security guards have been confirmed dead in the raid, along with a paramilitary ranger and a policeman, 14 civilian workers and 10 militants.
It was the biggest Taliban attack since a car bomb killed at least 42 people in the busy Kissa Khwani market of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar in September.
Shahid Khan said his nephew, who had an administrative job in the cargo terminal, was not well off and his family would now struggle to provide for his two daughters, aged three and one.
"We are in mourning but these are hard realities that his family will eventually have to face," he said.
( Source : PTI )
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