‘I want my son back,’ says father of teenager still missing after deadly Pakistan fire
KARACHI: Sarfaraz, a 42-year-old laborer who only gave his first name, stood outside a smoke-darkened Gul Plaza as he desperately scanned his surroundings for his 13-year-old son, Hamza, who worked at a shop inside the multi-story commercial building in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
He has visited the site multiple times since a fire broke out there last week, but authorities did not let the 42-year-old enter the premises out of safety concerns, forcing him to return home where his wife continues to question him about their son.
Hamza, 13, is one of more than 70 people missing whom rescue agencies have been searching underneath the rubble of the collapsed building since the incident, one of the deadliest fires since a 2012 infamous garment factory inferno that killed over 260 people in Baldia Town.
Sarfaraz says that his wife has stopped speaking or eating and has been waiting for their 13-year-old son who worked at a flower shop at Gul Plaza. Two of Hamza’s brothers, who also worked at Gul Plaza, were fortunate enough to survive the inferno.
