My father survived the Karsaz bombing; each new terror attack takes us back there

This piece was originally published on June 1, 2022. Over the last few decades, there is a severe burden of ‘resilience’ that has been thrust upon the inhabitants of some large cities in Pakistan, whether it is in the form of persistent rates of crime, diseased public utilities, unbreathable air, floundering healthcare or dismal transportation infrastructure. This oft-romanticised resilience is once more being demanded by the state as citizens of cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar are again being pushed into an unhappy reunion with an affliction that has reared its ugly head after a relative lull — accelerating terror attacks at home. Deadly incidents of this nature are cause for serious emotional instability among residents of these cities.

But by now, many locals have whittled down emotional survival to a fairly simple and linear process: Internal security event → temporary panic and lament of said event → desensitisation → next internal security event → repeat. It may seem somewhat callous to reduce this to such a mechanical progression, but the defence mechanisms adopted by those who live in the midst of frequent terrorism are not really up for judgment. If sanity is to be preserved, some form of detachment is necessary. And as someone who has personally employed this process many times in the past, I can say that it works, and works well at that. Until your father is present at the site of a bombing. Then the process comes crashing down. When calamity hits home Karachi, 18th October 2007: Celebrations of Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan were met with two bombs ripping through Karsaz in quick succession, killing nearly 200 people and injuring 500 others. Jammers were activated, emergency was declared, and public healthcare facilities were put on high…