Ismail is a die-hard supporter of the People's Party. His locality received sixteen bodies in his own Old Golimar neighbourhood, a traditional PPP bastion. Even he says that the Mohtarma should not have had such an extended procession. The hype began days earlier - flags, garish billboards in grotesque hues of black, red and green.
Everyone expected trouble on the D day of her arrival, the air heavy with foreboding. By the early hours of day the main Sharah-e-Faisal was closed halfway as the specially designed armoured vehicle lumbered its way slowly to its destination to receive the Mohtarma.
The traffic was scanty, everyone knew there would be trouble and offices, schools were closed as people preferred to stay at home. That was not to mention her provocative statements against A.Q. Khan, Madrassahs and Taliban and the northern areas. By three she'd arrived in Karachi, the TV showed throngs of crowds awaiting her arrival.
By midnight she'd reached Karsaz, at least twelve hours on the road when the explosion took place. Whose fault it was? The authorities or herself for the over extended motorcade in an already tense city. Something like dropping a lit match in a gas filled room and expecting it not to explode. Something was bound to happen, said Wasif, a University student, quoting an Urdu proverb...
"Waqt karta hai perwarish barson, hadsa aik dam nahin hota."
And who gets killed in the end? Innocent civilians, police officials on duty, reporters and camera staff, while she garners the sympathy of the world most citizens are critical. "Why couldn't she just have gone to the Quaid's mazaar and then home?
Why the fanfare when she knew the risk involved?" "And people had so much time to waste to stay up till twelve midnight for her. She could have tried to wrap up things by early night at a decent hour.
Others think this is another tactic of the party itself to win sympathy and "support as the victimised party it has always claimed itself to be," opines Mussarat, a working woman. The Mohtarma has blamed it on three individuals in the government without making their names public.
The PPP has the support of the world powers, ominously. Meanwhile, citizens will find it hard to forget the horrifying images shown on TV of mangled body parts, remains, men flying in the air from the explosion, charred and burnt men and women crying and screaming for help.
So the city reels horrified and wears a gloomy and deserted look, the streets wear a deserted look. Shops are closed down, tyres burn in the Guru Mandir, Lyari and other areas, people protesting. On Friday PPP stalwarts closed down eating places near the stadium in mourning for the carnage.
Imagine what mayhem would have been let loose if she had not escaped unhurt. And who knows how long this will go on and when it will end. Is this only the beginning, the prelude to further blood letting, of vengeance and counter vengeance and civil unrest of a large scale, with armed brigands controlling the streets and spate of suicide bombing holding ordinary civilians hostage? Only God knows.