Pakistan marks grim Eid after oil tanker inferno kills 157

Relatives weep as as an oil tanker blast victim is brought to a hospital in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Faisal Kareem / EPA

BAHAWALPUR, PAKISTAN // Pakistan began Eid in mourning on Monday as the death toll in an oil tanker explosion rose to 157, with scores injured after they were caught in a fireball while scooping up spilled fuel.

Dozens of relatives were waiting outside hospitals in Bahawalpur, the nearest major city, to claim the bodies of their loved ones as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived early Monday to visit victims after cutting short a visit to London.

Around a dozen of them, carrying the blackened remains of two victims wrapped in white cloth on charpoys, tried to reach the prime minister in protest but were stopped by security personnel a few metres away.

“The day of Eid has become a day of mourning and pain for us,” Mr Sharif said outside Victoria Hospital. He said he had ordered an inquiry and compensation of two million rupees (Dh70,000) for the families of the dead, and one million rupees for the injured.

The explosion ignited on Sunday as crowds ignored warnings to stay away from the tanker which had overturned on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore, spilling some 40,000 litres of fuel.

Details remain unclear, but police cited witnesses as saying the tanker’s tyre had burst. The driver survived the crash and was later taken into custody.

The accident quickly drew scores of people from a nearby village, many armed with whatever containers they could carry to scavenge the spilled fuel despite warnings from the driver and motorway police to stay away.

Minutes later the tanker exploded, engulfing the crowd as well as dozens of other vehicles in a massive fireball that sent a plume of thick smoke into the sky. The tanker driver survived the crash and was later taken into custody.

Nahid Ahmed, a doctor at the Nishter Hospital in the city of Multan, 100km from the site of the tragedy, said four of the victims brought from Bahawalpur had died overnight, raising the death toll to 157.

He said another 50 severely burned victims were being treated at the hospital.

Relatives of the dead could not contain their grief.

Mumtaz Mai, 40, a widow who lived with her two nephews, was beating her chest and screaming outside Victoria Hospital after both were killed in the fire.

Mumtaz Mai, a 40-year-old widow who lived with her two nephews, was beating her chest and screaming after both were killed in the fire.

“My world has come to an end,” she sobbed. “Where will I go now, with whom will I live? My life is but a curse.”

Muhammad Ayub, in his early 50s, lost his brother and nephew.

“We have been doomed. How can we celebrate Eid and what would it mean to us when we cannot even recognise the dead bodies of our loved ones?” he asked.

Pakistanis were already grieving for at least 77 people killed in a series of militant attacks on Friday.

* Agence France-Press and Associated Press