Pregnant Woman Loses Husband; Son Never Returned Home: Dreams Of Families Die In Delhi Violence

Even as five families were grieving at the loss of their loved ones in the violence in northeast Delhi on Monday, there were many injured who had been admitted to various hospitals in a critical condition. On Tuesday, some of them breathed their last, raising the death toll to 13.

Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital was swamped with relatives of the deceased. Among them were the inconsolable family members of Shahid Khan (22), who came in the line of fire while returning home along with his brother after offering prayers.

AP

While his brother managed to dodge the bullets, Khan collapsed in a pool of blood after being shot. He and his wife were planning to go on vacation next month. They had got married in September last year.

¡°His wife is three months pregnant. Their future plans died along with him,¡± said Khan¡¯s grieving elder brother, Imran.

When Khan didn¡¯t return on a fateful day, the family members started to panic. When they heard a knock on the door, they thought he had finally reached. ¡°But it was a stranger who showed us a picture of Shahid lying in a pool of blood in Bhajanpura. We were told that two men had taken him to GTB Hospital. We rushed there and found him dead,¡± Imran said. Khan was the youngest of four brothers.

AP

Like Khan, 32-year-old Furqan was shot dead when he ventured out to buy food. Mohammad Imran, his elder brother, said that Furqan, who had a handicraft business, wanted to buy essential food items to store in the house. Mohammed said the street was relatively clear when he went outside. He had only walked a few hundred metres when a stray bullet hit him.

¡°I was at work when a relative called me saying that Furqan had been shot. I rushed home and we took him to the hospital. He was bleeding profusely and succumbed to his injuries,¡± said Mohammed.

Furqan got married in 2014 and had two children, a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy. Mohammed said his brother always kept his family first. ¡°This is probably the reason why he went out. He only wanted us to be safe. Though things were tense in the area, we never expected this to happen,¡± he added. The autopsy was carried out at GTB Hospital.

BCCL

Another victim, Rahul Solanki (26), a civil engineer by profession, was at home till 5pm. He had assured his colleagues at 4.30pm that all was well and he would meet them the next day. However, within an hour, his colleagues received a call that Solanki had been shot dead by rioters. ¡°We got to know about the riots and people from office had called him up immediately asking him to take care. He said everything was fine. An hour later, we came to know that he had been shot,¡± said Shweta Chauhan, a colleague.

Solanki¡¯s father was inconsolable. He said everyone in their family was excited about his daughter¡¯s marriage due in early April. They had been busy with the preparations for the past couple of months. ¡°He had taken leave from work because of the tense situation in the area. Now I think it would have been better if he had gone to work. At least he would have been alive today,¡± added the grieving father.