QUETTA: The deadly bombing in Quetta on June 15 which resulted in the death of 12 female university students has faded out of the news – glossing over the fact that for many of the injured, their lives have been irrevocably changed.
Many of the victims were the first in their families to be attending university. Zara Ahmed, a Masters student in Islamic Studies at the Sardar Bahadur Khan (SBK) Women University has been missing since the bombing. Her elderly parents have desperately searched for her in every private and public hospital of the city. "We have been searching for Zara for a week, but we’re still clueless", her father, Zeenat Ahmed, told Dawn.com in tears. Her mother is still too traumatised to speak to anyone.
Those who survived the ordeal must now deal with serious wounds, incurred when a suicide bomber struck so powerfully that a bus filled with students was reduced to a melted heap.
Yasmeen Baloch is one of the survivors. Despite severe injuries, she has spoken to several media representatives. “I was in a second bus when I heard the huge blast,” she said. “Everything went dark and whatever I was touching was melting."
Despite a broken leg and shrapnel cuts across her face, Yasmeen, lying in a bed, emphasised that “Such incidents will never stop me from receiving an education … as soon as I get better, I will go to university.”
Not everyone is as calm and collected as Yasmeen. Most of the girls in SBK University are suffering from psychological trauma after the deadly blast.
“Initially, the survivors suffer from Acute Stress Reaction (ASR),” Dr. Ghulam Rasool, a well-known local psychiatrist, told Dawn.com. He said eight to nine female students at SBK University have approached his clinic for treatment in the aftermath of the bombing.
He said after ASR, survivors then go through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “If survivors are not treated properly and in a timely manner, it leads to depression or a regular disorder”, he added.
According to Dr. Rasool, the victims were also facing difficulty in coming to terms with the change in their physical appearance. He urged the families as well as the university administration to engage with the girls and organise memorial ceremonies to help them through their trauma.
Five other students who were admitted in Yasmeen's ward at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) were also suffering from trauma and refused to speak. “My sister has just gone through mental trauma,” Kaneez Fatima, the sister of one of the injured students told Dawn.com. Fatima said two of her sisters were admitted at the CMH and were in shock.
Health and education suffer too
It’s not just the direct victims who have to suffer. Balochistan's largest government-run hospital, the Bolan Medical Complex (BMC) remained closed for the tenth consecutive day on Monday. Authorities shut down the hospital on June 15 after terrorists laid siege to the medical complex, holding hundreds of patients, physicians and nurses hostage as they battled security forces. Patients from BMC have been shifted to the Civil Hospital and other private hospitals of the city.
Meanwhile, the SBK University has also been shut down for an indefinite period after the terrorist attack. In a strictly-veiled society, it is no small feat for a Quetta-based family to decide to send their daughter to university. “This university stands first in terms of quality education throughout the country,” the university’s vice chancellor, Sultana Baloch, told Dawn.com. She said after efforts by the administration, the university was on a path of progress: “Everything has been reversed now,” she stated.
Paramilitary troops and police personnel have been deployed outside the university and hospital since the twin suicide attacks, which left more than two dozen, including four attackers, dead.
Intelligence officials who requested not to be named said a female suicide bomber carried out the first attack on the bus – the follow-up attack took place at the BMC Hospital where the injured were being treated soon after.