PIMS Overwhelmed as Islamabad Mourns with Grief and Resilience

ISLAMABAD — Heartrending scenes unfolded at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Saturday, February 7, 2026, as the facility struggled to cope with the aftermath of the suicide bombing at Imambargah Qasr-i-Khadijatul Kubra. Under a somber gray sky and intermittent rainfall, the hospital has become the focal point of a national tragedy.

Families in Despair

The hospital’s emergency and outpatient departments were inundated with wailing relatives. For many families, the tragedy is compounded by economic ruin, as women and children lamented the loss of their primary breadwinners.

• Casualty Update: By late Friday evening, the hospital administration had handed over 28 bodies to grieving families.
• Medical Emergency: 105 injured victims remain under treatment at PIMS, with several still in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU) and operation theaters.
• A Displaced Community: Many of the victims were members of the Hazara community from Quetta or families from Hangu, Parachinar, and Gilgit-Baltistan. These families had moved to the Tarlai area—a more affordable suburb—specifically to escape the very terrorism that followed them to the capital.

Maintaining Order Amidst Chaos

Recognizing the potential for the intense grief to boil over into civil unrest, community leaders took proactive steps:

• Sermons of Calm: Two local clerics remained at the hospital throughout the night, reciting religious narratives of the Karbala incident to soothe the crowd and prevent the formation of angry mobs.
• Security Coordination: Police and district administration officials were embedded with medical teams to manage the thousands of people who gathered in the parking lots, where sporadic anti-terrorism slogans were chanted.

Communication Breakdown

Visitors at PIMS reported severe mobile network disruptions and agonizingly slow data speeds. While rumors of a deliberate government “blackout” circulated, the major telecom providers—Ufone, Jazz, Zong, and Telenor—clarified that they had not lowered signals. The poor quality was attributed to a network capacity surge as thousands of people attempted to coordinate from a single location simultaneously.

Funeral Services

The collective funeral prayers for the martyrs are scheduled to be held at 11:00 AM today (Saturday) at the site of the attack in Tarlai. Security in the area has been fortified with additional cordons of police and paramilitary Rangers.

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