The Hindu : Front Page : Blast victims’ families in a state of shock

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Monday, Sep 15, 2008
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Blast victims’ families in a state of shock

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI: Anxious and exhausted relatives continued their vigil outside various city government hospitals waiting for news about those injured in the Saturday evening serial blasts in the Capital which left 21 dead and over 100 injured. Several people were discharged from the hospitals after treatment.

After a night of tension, confusion and terror, panic-stricken relatives who thronged the hospitals on Saturday night said the enormity of what happened was yet to sink in.

Several people spoke about Good Samaritans who shifted the injured to the nearest hospital, and about those who informed relatives of the whereabouts of the injured. The contribution of the police and hospital staff was also appreciated.

“Last night was spent running from one department to the other looking for my son who had gone to Gaffar Market with his friends when the blast took place. He was injured and was helped by a young Sikh who brought him to the hospital on his scooter and later called us to inform that my son was injured. I did not even get a chance to thank the good Samaritan properly,” said Mohammed Ahmed. He said he was happy that his son was alive.

But the family of Hari Chand was not so lucky. Three members of his family, including Hari Chand, died in the blast at Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh. His wife, Shanti Devi, who came to claim the bodies of her husband and her children, Ashok and Saroj, at the Lady Hardinge Hospital was inconsolable.

Living with fear

“We are very poor people, why are the terrorist attacking us? What wrong have we done? Besides my family, we have also lost some relatives. I don’t know how we are going to live with the fear that this incident has left us with,” she said.

Standing outside the Lady Hardinge mortuary to collect the body of his brother-in-law, Mohammed Kasim (22), and check on his critically injured elder brother, Mohammed Farooq, Gulam Muhdain from Kashmir said: “Kasim got married recently and has a nine-month-old child. He had come to Delhi to work as a rickshaw puller some months back and used to work with his brother in the Karol Bagh area. I heard about the blast on television and then called up my friend in Delhi to ask about my sister and her family. Kasim and his elder brother lost their father when they were young. Now Kasim is dead and Farooq is fighting for his life. Life has been very unfair, Kasim had shifted to Delhi to escape terrorism in Kashmir and live a peaceful life only to die in a bomb blast in Delhi.”

Unable to come to terms with the fact that her husband Chander Bhan (50) died in a bomb blast in the high security Capital of the country, Lakshmi Bhan said: “I was informed last night by a police personnel that my husband was injured and admitted to the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. We rushed to the hospital but the injuries he sustained were fatal and I cannot believe that my husband is no longer with me today. Our relatives are coming from Rajasthan to be with us.”

Relatives of victims sitting outside various city hospitals say they are not sure how long they will take to recover from the loss.

K.C. Sharma, whose 25-year-old nephew, Lakshmi Kant, the only bread winner in his family, is now at the RML Hospital fighting for his life, said: “Bomb blasts hit the poorest of the poor. Lakshmi, who was at the Barakhamba bus stop, has injured his right eye, hand and leg and it will be a long time before he will be able to work or support his family.”

Also standing outside the hospital, a group of Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials anxious waited for news about their colleague, Durjan Singh (50), who was injured while changing buses at the Barakhamba bus stop. Mr. Singh stays in Ghaziabad and while he usually takes a train from Delhi, he had opted for a bus because of a disruption in train services.

“He had called his wife around 6 p.m. to say that he was at the Barakhamba bus stop and that he was changing the bus to reach home. She later heard about the blast and her worst fears came true when the Delhi police confirmed that Mr. Singh was among the blast victims. He told us that all he remembered was thick smoke and then waking up at the hospital. Of course, there is a sense of disbelief and fear after incidents like this,” said Keshavan Lal an officer with the MCD.

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