By IANS,
Kolkata: Shock, disbelief and grief were what the Goenkas went through on hearing that their daughter Shilpa had died in the bomb attack in Pune. The parents say they are having a tough time getting her body back to Kolkata and blame the authorities for not doing enough.
The 23-year-old’s parents said they knew Shilpa, who was working in Mumbai, had gone to Pune over the weekend for a break, but couldn’t believe that she would “never come back”.
“We found out at around 1.30 a.m. We had to call the police commissioner because we were getting no information from anywhere… you can’t image what we went through and then the police said that she is the one who has died. ‘Shilpa Goenka is dead’,” Shilpa’s mother Neelam said with tears rolling down her cheeks.
“We could not believe what we were hearing. We asked them how did they know it was her and they said her friends had confirmed. But how could we believe it? Even now our hearts can’t accept this,” she told a news channel.
On Saturday evening, Shilpa was with two of her friends in the hugely popular German Bakery. Tragedy struck when a bomb went off right under her table killing nine people and injuring at least 57 others.
The Goenkas are struggling to retrieve Shilpa’s body, which is still with the authorities in Pune.
Her father Rajesh Goenka said “no one in India” is safe from terror strikes.
“We are all sitting on a bomb. India is no more safe for anyone. Sitting here, who knows there may be a blast just now. (I feel this way because) our government is sleeping� they are not taking proper action or precautions to prevent such incidents,” said a bitter Rajesh.
“The government should ensure that such incidents are not repeated… so that more innocent lives are not lost and families like ours don’t suffer,” he added.
Rajesh said his family was having a tough time getting Shilpa’s body back for cremation and lashed out at the “insensitive authorities”.
“You see ministers always are safe because big security is behind them. If such an incident happens to them then by this time the entire nation would have risen to go for his procession… here we are suffering just to claim (Shilpa’s) body… not for anything else… for cremation,” lamented Rajesh.