“Why are people dying? There is no God. Mandir, gurdwara nothing. My son is gone.” These words of a bereaved father brought tears into the eyes of the many gathered at the capital’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where
Wednesday’s blast victims had been brought for treatment.
Manmohan Singh, a resident of Tilak Nagar, had lost his 21-year-old son Amanpreet Singh Jolly, a law student, in the bomb blast at the Delhi high court. Amanpreet was the youngest among the 11 dead in the blast and was studying law at an institute in Sahibabad, bordering Delhi.
The injured, their relatives and an anxious crowd consisting of the media and some volunteers stood silently. The man cried out, “Congress, BJP... everyone is corrupt. If you slap the son of a minister, there will be immediate action on it. But, now my son is gone. Will anybody do anything?”
Mumtaz, daughter of Nizamuddin (85), the oldest victim, was heard whispering all the way — “My abba is gone”.
The old man was at the court, accompanying someone in the family.
After relatives identified the dead bodies at the hospital, the news and the grief were carried to their homes and families.
In the evening, after the bomb blast, silence prevailed in Naraina Vihar residential colony in West Delhi as news gradually spread about the death of H.D. Joshi, the respected president of the welfare association in their colony.
“The family came to know about the mishap at around noon and we rushed to the RML Hospital where we identified him,” said Abir, Joshi’s son.
“He was dear to everyone in this colony, from A-block to all,” remembered a resident in the colony who did not want to be named.
Some were seen walking from one hospital to another, where the victims were brought, as late in the afternoon to look for their dear ones who were missing from the high court premise after the blast.
“The families of the high court blast victims will receive the dead bodies on Thursday morning after the post-mortem,” said Rajan Bhagat, Delhi police spokesman.