Pakistan marks grim Eid after oil tanker inferno kills 157

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

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Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
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How to wear a kandura

Dos

Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts

Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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Men’s squad: Faisal Al Ketbi, Omar Al Fadhli, Zayed Al Kathiri, Thiab Al Nuaimi, Khaled Al Shehhi, Mohamed Ali Al Suwaidi, Farraj Khaled Al Awlaqi, Muhammad Al Ameri, Mahdi Al Awlaqi, Saeed Al Qubaisi, Abdullah Al Qubaisi and Hazaa Farhan

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