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When the Malegaonians woke up to
September 08, 2006, it was not an ordinary day but was a
Shab-e-Barat coinciding with a Friday. Consequently, everyone was in
a festive mood and had planned new cloths for the day. The women and
the children were more ecstatic, they had applied the Hena on
their hands the previous night itself. Excited and unaware of what
actually was in store for them in the afternoon, they were anxiously
waiting for the evening.
And then in just few minutes at around
01:55 in the afternoon everything vanished. “The Imam had
completed the Friday prayers in the mosque inside the Qabristan and
people were gearing up for Sunnah, the optional prayer after
the obligatory prayers, when two bombs exploded one after the
other”, recalls Kamran Asim whose son was injured in the blasts.
Series of Blasts inside the
Qabristan
“Before I could understand anything
and feel the pains of my own wounds, I found my cousin tumbling on
the ground”, recalls 13-year old Faisal referring to his cousin,
Ashar Malik, who was just nine when died in last year’s blasts.
“Having seen us standing helplessly near Ashar, a man came, picked
him up in his arms and rushed towards the main gate of the
Qabristan”, Faisal continues, “The last words that I had heard
from him was ‘Mujhe Mere Ghar Le Chalo, I live at Nayapura
Gali No.1”, he completes somehow and then broke into tears.
Along with Ashar Malik, the blasts in
Qabristan had taken many more innocent lives.
Just few minutes after this twin-blast
one more bomb exploded, this time at Mushawerat Chowk, around 500
meters away from Qabristan.
The Scene at Mushawerat Chowk
“While we were going to the Qabristan
as we do every Friday, we saw many people coming from opposite
sides, carrying the blast victims on whatever means they found
accessible. It was when we were crossing each other that a bomb
exploded here at Mushawerat Chowk”, recalls Shafeeque Ahmed, who had
lost his son Sajid, an MBBS aspirant, in this blast. “Along with my
son, the blast had killed some who had escaped the death trap at
Qabristan”, he adds.
Utter Chaos in Every Hospital
People rushed the victims to nearby
Noor and Faran Hospitals and when it became impossible to treat the
victims in these hospitals, people took them to Vaidya and Medicare
Hospitals located in the later half of the city.
However, although there was chaos in
almost every hospital of the city, peace prevailed large in the
city. “I found people standing on the two sides of the roads
allowing us to carry the victims smoothly”, recalls Kamran Asim.
When the whole Malegaon came to
standstill
With blast victims on their shoulders,
the Malegaonians demonstrated sheer communal harmony. Rarely had the
city seen Hindus and Muslims coming out on roads in such a large
number and in unison for support.
And then after the postmortem at
around ten late in the evening, the funerals of the deceased started
towards its course. The whole city was shaking with grief. The new
cloths remained untouched. The women and children hated to look at
their Hena-imprinted hands. Still, unprecedented calm
prevailed all over the city and the most excruciating moment came
when the farewell journey of four victims belonging to the same
family started from Nayapura. “Even after one year, the moment still
haunts me. It seems to me Jaise Kal Ki Bat
Ho”, says Shafeeque Ahmed while he failed in controlling his
tears.
(Written for Nashik Times)
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