New Delhi: It’s been a painstakingly long wait for Gulshan outside the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital since rioters set her home on fire and threw her father, Mohd Anwar, into it.
Rescuers have managed to salvage only a leg of Anwar from the inferno and Gulshan has been waiting for doctors to give her that last piece of her father’s body so that she can complete the last rites.
The doctors can only confirm if the burnt leg belongs to Anwar after receiving the results of DNA samples provided by Gulshan for the purpose.
Anwar lived in Shiv Vihar, one of the areas that was worst-hit during the communal violence that ravaged large parts of Northeast Delhi. Gulshan, meanwhile, lives at Pilakwa in Hapur with her husband, Naseeruddin, and their two sons, aged seven and eight. Naseeruddin became blind four years ago after he met with an acid accident. Anwar used to support their family by renting out 'thelas'. He had a few goats as well.
Gulshan says Anwar was shot twice by the rioters, then his home was set ablaze and he was thrown into the fire. Locals told her their home was looted before being burnt down.
When she spoke to him for the last time over phone on February 25, Anwar told her there’s turmoil everywhere and people are fighting.
“I asked him if the fight was with him, he said ‘nahi, beta (no, child)’. Then he said ‘people have gheraoed us, I’m stuck’, and the phone got disconnected,” says Gulshan.
Gulshan’s uncle, Salim, who lives nearby had a narrow escape, but his home too has been burnt down. The brothers used to live on rent in Shiv Vihar, Prem Vihar, Gali Number 1.
Gulshan says the rioters started looking for her uncle after attacking her father. “They asked for my uncle by name. ‘Kahan hai Salim? Ek aur Muslim rehta tha yaha par' (Where is Salim. Another Muslim lives in the area),” she said.
Salim, who saw his brother being pushed into the blaze, called Gulshan later during the day after which she rushed to Shiv Vihar.
Comments
0 comment