The Hindu : National : Tragedy strikes two families

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Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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National

Tragedy strikes two families

Sushanta Talukdar

Two battling for life in hospital

Guwahati: Ten-year-old Safique was hungry and in a hurry to leave for school to take the half-yearly mathematics examination. As his grandmother was a little late on Saturday morning in preparing the breakfast, he decided to have tea and puri, which his father had already prepared for selling at the family’s roadside tea stall and leave for school.

As Safique, student of class VI, was about to finish his breakfast, there was a deafening sound and moments later around 7.30 a.m. his lifeless body was lying along with his father Rafique Ahmed and two others — Hasan Ali and Sanjib. They were killed in the powerful blast close to a mosque along the Tarun Ram Phukan Road of the city’s Machkhowa locality.

Three-year-old Hanufa Khatun died of injuries at the hospital while her brother Mafizul and sister Moina Khatun are battling for lives at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital. Their father Anowar Hussain, a cart puller, pleaded with the doctors to save the lives of his two surviving children. Anowar and his three children too were having breakfast at the tea stall.

Safique’s grandmother wept bitterly while his two elder brothers Mafique and Toufique, who were also getting ready for the examination, were too shocked to react to the tragedy that had befallen the family.

The cheeks of Rumi, Safique’s 19-year-old eldest sister, were tear-streaked as she tried to suppress the rush of emotion. The brothers and sisters tried to console each other and their grieving grandmother.

Safique’s mother Monowara, was away in Silchar to attend a family function. “I had just come back helping my son (Rafique) to open the tea stall and was about to take vegetables for preparing the sabzi by him. Suddenly, there was a deafening sound and when we rushed outside we found both my son and the grandson lying in a pool of blood along with others. Safique would always have breakfast with me. As he had the examination and I was yet to prepare the breakfast, he went out to have the breakfast at his father’s tea stall only to die along with his father,” narrated Hasina Begum, Sofique’s grandmother, repeating the tragic tale to the politicians and reporters, relatives and neighbours.

The victims’ families live in the cluster of slum houses close to the blast site, characterised by damp floor, leaking tin roofs and hardboards covering the gaps on the bamboo walls while flashguns of photojournalists lit up the dark interior for a few moments.

As in the previous blasts in public places in the city and elsewhere the victims belonged to poor and marginalised families.

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