The Hindu : Front Page : Life returns to normal in Ahmedabad

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Monday, Jul 28, 2008
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Life returns to normal in Ahmedabad

Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD: Serial blast-hit Ahmedabad was near normal, though subdued, on Sunday.

Even in the labour-dominated eastern parts of the old city which bore the brunt — 15 of the 17 blasts on Saturday evening occurred here — vendors could be seen distributing newspapers and the milk booths opened as usual. As the day advanced, the public transport systems began plying, but the traffic on the roads was less even by Sunday’s standards.

In the posh western parts, across the river Sabarmati, people went about their routine work. In Surat, cinemas and shopping malls were ordered to close to avoid a possible terror attack. In several other cities and towns, theatres suspended night shows. Shopping malls and cinema halls in Ahmedabad were open, but there were few customers.

By evening, people crowded eateries as is usual on a Sunday. But hotels and restaurants reported smaller turnout.

There was no dearth of curious onlookers outside the police cordon at the site of the blasts.

Bomb squad defused two live bombs dumped in a garbage can in the morning in the Hatkeshwar locality in Maninagar, site of the worst terror strike barely 12 hours ago.

The crowd clapped enthusiastically as the police displayed the defused bombs. To the relief of the State authorities, there was no communal tension in any part of the city.

The scene at the trauma centre of the government civil hospital, however, was far from normal.

Besides people visiting the injured, hundreds turned up to see the site of the car bomb explosion that killed 23, including a doctor-couple. Dr. Prerak Shah, 32, and his 28-year-old pregnant wife, Kinjal, both orthopaedic surgeons, were treating the injured when the blast killed them.

A few other hospital staff and the staff of an ambulance van near the car bomb also perished. Eye-witnesses said the ambulance van carrying the injured from blast-hit areas had parked at the entrance to the trauma centre. Patients were being wheeled out when a car halted just behind it. No one noticed anyone disembarking from the car, but within minutes the car exploded twisting the van out of shape.

A head found near the car gave rise to speculation that a “human bomb” or a suicide bomber was involved.

The impact of the blast was equally severe inside the hospital. The trauma centre was badly damaged. The air-conditioning ducts and water pipes were ripped off. The doors of the women’s ward nearby were blasted open.

Eleven-year-old Rohan and his eight-year-old sister Shradhha, who had accompanied their grandfather to visit their ailing grandmother, are still “missing.” The grandmother, released from the hospital, has reached home.

The L. G. hospital run by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation was also targeted, indicating a plan to inflict the maximum casualties.

The timing of the blasts in the hospitals was precisely planned, about 40 minutes to one hour after the initial blasts, when the premises were milling with people bringing in the injured or visiting them.

At most of the blast sites, the terror group had used two sets of bombs.

The first was of a very low-intensity, apparently to collect the crowd, and minutes later a high-intensity bomb exploded nearby killing bystanders.

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