New Delhi: It has been more than 12 hours since the brother-sister duo of Mohd Chand and Nazma Khatoon searched frantically for their sibling Mohd Jumman. They are rightly worried: His last known location is the spot of the car blast near Red Fort, which has killed at least 12 people.
When Chand heard about the explosion last night, he called his 39-year-old brother, who drives a battery rickshaw in the area, to ask about his well-being. But Jumman’s phone was unreachable.
“I called the rickshaw owner, who tracked the GPS of the rickshaw that my brother drives. The owner told me that he has been able to trace the rickshaw at the exact spot where the car exploded,” he tells ThePrint.
The last name on the list of the blast victims is ‘unknown body parts,’ a term used for those disfigured beyond recognition. The siblings fear that the remains are of their eldest brother.
What adds to their frustration and trauma is the chaos and the indifference they are facing, be it from dismissive policemen and pesky media personnel.
“All I’m asking for is someone to take me seriously, is that too much?” an angry Chand complained outside the hospital.
The long search
After speaking to the owner of the rickshaw, Chand rushed towards Red Fort, only to find the busiest market in the city dead silent. He says it was an eerie feeling to even walk the path to the Red Fort, which had become a fortress guarded by the police at all ends.
Suddenly, his movement in an area he knows like the back of his hand was restricted. He recalls jumping from a high pillar to reach near the site of the explosion. The area had been cordoned off.
“They told me that all people, dead or alive, have been sent to LNJP (Hospital) and that I should go and inquire there. So I came here, and here I’m standing behind police barricades again, with no answer in sight,” Chand said Monday night.
At one point, he lost his cool and banged Gate 4 of LNJP Hospital, asking to be let in. “They’re not letting me inside to look for my brother. This is inhuman. Let me inside, let me inside!” he screamed before the guards posted at the gate.
Tempers were running high as family members crowded outside the gate, desperate for answers. Some were furious, others aggressive, and a few drunk.
“Just tell us if they’re fine. Tell us if they’re dead. It is our right to see our relatives,” a family member screamed outside the gate.
Slowly, the guards opened Gate 4 leading up to the emergency ward to let in some of the people gathered outside.
“He has left us. He’s no more among us. Why has he left us!” the father of Amar Kataria wailed as he exited through the gate.
A tense Chand bit his nails. When he went to the gate, the police personnel on duty spoke crudely and shooed him away.
After standing in the chaos for an hour and repeatedly asking to be let inside, the guards finally relented when journalists requested the administration to allow Chand inside the hospital. Chand instead sent his sister to the emergency ward.
Najma was inside for two hours, looking at one body after another. But her brother was nowhere to be found. She was then taken to casualty, but he wasn’t even among the injured.
The hospital staff advised her to go home and assured to call her if there was an update.
The long night turned into a long morning. The family then headed to the Red Fort to look for his missing rickshaw. They scanned a nearby trash dump to look for any clues. It was no good.
The duo then headed towards the mortuary at Maulana Azad College but weren’t allowed inside.
“We’re very frustrated. They didn’t let us inside to see the bodies. They asked us to leave. And my brother hasn’t picked up his phone all night. Why can’t we get an answer?” Najma said. “We’re poor so nobody is listening to us.”
The tired brother and sister then left for home. Their choice of commute: a battery rickshaw.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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