By IANS,
Islamabad : As the woman lay wounded and writhing in pain following the Oct 28 bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, a man ripped off her earrings. And this is not a solitary incident of Pakistan’s terror victims being attacked and robbed.
A doctor, who works at the Lady Reading Hospital in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) capital that has been subjected to a series of terror attacks, told The News that many patients had complained about incidents where thieves and pickpockets have deprived them of their valuables.
He said that soon after the blast in crowded Meena Bazar, in which 110 people had been killed, a person came to her and asked about her condition. When she told him that she needed to be taken to hospital, the man ripped out her earrings and then asked other people to come and pick up the injured woman.
Ayaz Khan, a resident of the city who lost his family members in the blast, said some people tried to steal gold bangles, rings, mobile phones and watches from the dead and injured people.
“When the pickpockets see that a dead woman is wearing jewellery, they pretend to be their relatives and start ostensibly crying for her. During the time of shifting her to hospital, they steal the jewellery,” The News quoted him as saying.
Khan said a person was caught trying to steal the gold bangles of a woman killed in the blast by the driver of the ambulance.
In another incident, a man who was injured in Khyber Bazaar blast Oct 9 that killed more than 50 people told doctors that after the blast he was semi-conscious and was lying on the road when a person came and took Rs.10,000 and a passport from his pocket.
Hospital staff have also fallen prey.
Sheraz Afridi, a senior doctor at the Accident and Emergency department, said that while he along with his staff were shifting a body into a coffin, a pickpocket attempted to deprive a staff member of his wallet.
Pakistan has been hit by a string of terror strikes, which have left over 200 people dead. The army has stepped up its assault in mountainous South Waziristan against the Taliban, which has vowed to retaliate over the US drone strikes. A drone strike in early August had killed then Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.