Twin blasts memories still haunt Hyderabad

Tributes paid to victims on 14th anniversary of the incident

Hyderabad: The city on Wednesday paid tributes to victims of the 2007 twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park on the 14th anniversary of the incident. The ghastly blasts on the evening of August 25, 2007, had claimed the lives of 42 persons, 32 of them at Gokul Chat and 10 at Lumbini Park.

On Wednesday, the Gokul Chat Bhandar was shut down in remembrance of those killed in the twin blasts. Syed Raheem, a painter from Saidabad, who lost an eye in the blast and has since been suffering from different health ailments, along with a few others paid tributes to those who lost their lives in the incident.

Recalling that fateful day, Raheem remembered that he had gone to the Gokul Chat along with his younger daughter to buy an ice-cream around 7.50 pm when the blast took place.
“I was thrown aside in the impact of the blast and was rushed to Osmania General Hospital, where I was later told I had lost an eye. My daughter was a little away and so she survived with minor injuries,” he says, adding that he has been staying afloat doing odd jobs as his health does not support him to do any hard work.

He demanded that the government immediately hang all those found guilty by the court and not to keep them in high security prisons. “To keep those persons who were held responsible for the blasts in jails, after the death sentence means denying justice to families of the victims. The government should initiate steps to hang them,” Raheem, who is also a member of the Terrorist Bomb Blast Victims Association, told Telangana Today. He hoped the government would provide him with a double bedroom house and added, “I am staying in a rented house and struggling to pay the monthly rent. I appeal to the government to help me.”

Several local leaders and social activists also visited the spot and paid tributes to the victims of the blasts.

 

A night of chaos in city

Fourteen years ago, in just five minutes on August 25, 2007, 42 persons lost their lives and over 50 were injured in the twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat.

The first blast occurred at Lumbini Park while a laser show was in progress, killing 10 persons, including a few students from Pune who had come to the city on an excursion. Five minutes later at 7.50 pm, the second blast ripped through the popular Gokul Chat at Koti. Packed with the evening crowd, the damage was disastrous here, killing 32 persons.
With the blasts being orchestrated at places popular among the public, the victims of the blasts included people from different backgrounds and with several children and women. The explosions triggered utter chaos in the city, with many rushing to the spots to check whether their known or loved ones were among the victims.

The local police and bus drivers of the State Road Transport Corporation rose to the situation and rushed the injured people to the Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital in RTC buses. For hours, panic prevailed in the city with rumour mills working overtime even as authorities struggled to bring things under control. Teams were formed to identify and nab the criminals involved in the act.

The case was investigated by the National Investigation Agency, which ended its probe in 2018. The Nampally sessions court convicted and sentenced to death two Indian Mujahideen operators, Md Ismail Chowdhari and Aneeq Shafique Sayeed. A third convict, Mohammed Tareeq Anjum, was sentenced to life. Two others, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash and Mohammed Sadiq, were acquitted for want of evidence. A total of eight people were charge-sheeted in the case. The remaining three accused, who are the key conspirators, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Amir Riza Khan, are still at large.

The convicted persons are facing trial in different cases as well in the country and so the death sentence has not been executed so far.