LA HORE: As a body is rolled out and loaded into an ambulance, media cameras swarm around to capture the image. But this is only one body and so many more left the hospital on Monday carrying their deceased relatives home for funerals, amid tears and misery.

Inside the children`s ward thesight is hardest to bear. While the worst cases have obviously been shifted to the ICU, the cases in the wards themselves are bad enough.

A man sits on a hospital bed carrying his two-year old daughter in his arms, while her mother, red-eyed and worried, sits on the bench next to the bed. Any stranger who approaches the be d sets the little girl off wailing and crying scared, clinging with all her might to her father.`Amma ji!` she cries suspicious of anyone other than her parents.

`She has been hit in the chest and is in a lot of pain,` explains her father.

A three-year old child, sleeping alone on a bed that is absurdly too big for her tiny body, was unknown until mid-Monday when her mother who is injured and is in another hospital identified her. Deaf and dumb, she badly needs her mother, says a neighbouring patient, and cannot understand anyone else.

`They cannot shift her mother here because she is badly injured but the child may be moved to her soon,` says the patient, who along with her two sisters is also admitted.

But a third child perhaps presents the worst state by the look of it. His skin burnt black by the blast has peeled off in some places, and his eyes are covered with cotton wool.

He is wearing an oxygen mask and did not show any signs of movement until today, says his attendant, an uncle. `Shahbaz was one of the many who came from Sanghar, theywere relatives and I had invited them here for an event,` he says.

`So many people have died. This child looks bad, but he will recover.

He lost his sister but at least his parents are alive. Another child has lost both his parents and siblings. It was terrible.

Nadeem Gill, who had begun his morning with happiness, ended his day being brought to hospital semiconscious.

`No place is safe anymore not a church, or mosque, a parl( or school,` says Gill, his voice barely audible. His legs are badly injured.

`We are being ravaged by our own country as if a mad dog is after us.

Now at this point it has become so bad that we would rather be slaves for the `angrez` but do not wish to live in this country anymore.

Gill, who owns a small Rent a Car company, hopes that at least he can send his family away to save them from these incidents in future.

Meanwhile, six bodies were sent back to their families in Youhannabad while a family held a funeral at the Christian graveyardon the day after the blast.

`I have just attended the funeral of Noman James whose father is terribly ill, and who was the only support of his family,` says Samuel Payara from Voice of Christian International, who has helped on the field rescuing people after the blast. He is in Jinnah Hospital to visit the other members of the Christian community to see if they need any help.

`The unfortunate family not only lost their elder son but now their younger son too is in Sheikh Zayed Hospital holding on to his last breaths it seems.

A relative of a victim remembered a time when Easter was a happy incident, not one marked with insecurity and fear.

`Easter is about forgiving, but these terrorists are not human and we will never forgive them,` he says grimly.

Meanwhile perhaps those who need the most appreciation were the hospital staff, who contributed in every way that they could.

`We did things that were not even part of our duty, says Parveen Munir, who is a sanitary worker.

`We are not Christians, and you donotneed to be of any religion to work for other human beings. We picked up bawling children in the most fragile of states. One child did not even have a body beneath his torso and he passed away today finally.

Some of us even donated blood.

`In this situation all boundaries of our religion and our social stations were dissolved,` says Nasreen Nosher, another sanitary worker. `We were all humans, we were all one in this horrible tragedy.

Meanwhile, the ambulatory wing of the banned Jamaatud Dawa was seen in the grounds, its yellow jacketed staff spread out all over the hospital The governor also made a visit speaking briefly to the media and condemning the incident in general tones.

When asked why no antimilitancy operation had been held in Punjab before, he answered the question only vaguely before walking away.