By Mohammed Shafeeq, IANS
Hyderabad : K. Krishna Chand was to celebrate his 27th birthday on Sunday and his first marriage anniversary Monday. But now the two days will be preceded by his death anniversary.
Chand was having delicious chat at Gokul Chat, a much-frequented food joint, Saturday when a terror blast snuffed out his life. Officials said at least 32 people were killed at the eatery.
“What should I tell my daughter?” Krishna’s father-in-law asked, crying inconsolably.
Ten others died in another blast around 30 minutes earlier at a laser show in Lumbini Park near the Hussain Sagar Lake.
Couples having a special meal together, students scouting for books, families out to enjoy a laser show…they were simple people out for simple pleasures on a weekend. Here one moment, and gone the next.
The 42 dead included three children. What did they do to deserve this?
Many victims were not even Hyderabad residents. Vigna, 18, had come all the way from Prakasam district to attend counselling for admission into an engineering college, but was killed at the bombing in Gokul Chat.
“We should not have come here,” wailed a father at the Osmania General Hospital mortuary.
It’s a vacuum in his life that will never be filled.
E. Shyam Rao, an employee with a financial company, had gone to the eatery with his fiancée. Since the joint was crowded, Rao went inside to fetch some food, but never returned. His fiancée, however, survived.
Ikramullah Khan, 17, too was buying some eatables while his two sisters were waiting outside the eatery in an auto rickshaw. The three had gone to buy books at Koti near Gokul Chat, which has several well-known bookstores. Khan did not return.
Some tourists, some visiting for official purposes…they are all gone.
As many as seven engineering students from Maharashtra were killed in the blast at Lumbini Park as were two railway employees from Madhya Pradesh.
K.V. Anand, an oncologist at Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), and his friend Chaitanya Prasad, a surgeon at Osmania Hospital, were enjoying some dishes at Gokul Chat. It turned out to be their last meal.