By IANS,
New Delhi : For 70-year-old Rekha fate has played a cruel joke. She saw her grandson dying in front of her eyes, as a bomb blast rocked a congested market place in the national capital Saturday.
Santosh Kumar, 13, was killed on the spot as the blast went off Saturday afternoon in Mahrauli Sarai electronic market, on the city’s southern outskirts.
Santosh’s family had migrated from Bihar some two decades back and have been staying in Islam colony in Mahrauli. The family sold omelettes and breads to eke out their living in the ill-fated lane, which was rocked by the blast.
The third among seven siblings, Santosh helped the family by running errands for their pavement shop.
“He was going to get egg trays when the bomb went off… my (grand) son died in front of my eyes and I failed to do anything,” said an inconsolable Rekha.
According to the police, Santosh picked up the bomb, which was concealed in a lunch box and wrapped in a black polythene bag, and tried handing it back to two motorcycle riders, thinking they had dropped the packet by mistake.
As the bomb began emitting smoke, the frightened child dropped it and tried to run away. But within seconds, the bomb exploded, killing him and felling many men and women in the vicinity.
Santosh, a student of sixth standard in a government school, was brought dead to the AIIMS trauma centre, sources said.
“We have been waiting to collect his body but the police are saying they have to finish some formalities,” said Bumbum Kumar, Santosh’s elder brother.
Several relatives of the injured thronged the hospital to know about their kin. Many were not allowed to even enter the hospital premises for security reasons.
“My son Allaudin is critically injured. I have been pleading to the doctors to allow me to see my son but they are not,” said a stoic Gulshan.