National

Pain, grief and a sense of shock

GUWAHATI: The terror-stricken and blood-spattered face of Dulal Mandal of the Henegrabari locality here, searching desperately at the Ganeshguri blast site for someone, was imprinted on every viewer who switched on television on Thursday.

On Friday, Mr. Mandal was writhing in pain in a surgical ward of the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where he was admitted along with about 100 other injured. His four sons, however, could not muster the courage to tell him that their mother, Manju Mandal, had died and they had come to take the body back home.

The Mandals had gone to Ganeshguri to buy wool as she wanted to knit a sweater for the youngest son, Sevak, and do some shopping for Bhai-Phota — a ritual of Hindu Bengalis involving brother and sister — when a powerful blast shattered their lives.

On Thursday, it was the thick black smoke of burnt vehicles and charred bodies at the blast sites. On Friday, it was smoke in different crematoria in the city. It was a pathetic scene as local residents broke down and relatives wailed when the mortal remains of three blast victims of the Lisubagan locality near Henegrabari were consigned to flames at a local crematorium.

The bodies of 19 of the 43 people, who died in multiple blasts in three places in the city, were yet to be identified. Most of these were charred. Official sources said the bodies of all 21 victims in Kokrajhar and 11 victims at Barpeta Road were identified and handed over to relatives.

Police took DNA samples of people, who arrived at the GMCH looking for missing relatives, for matching with that of the unidentified bodies. For many like Pranjit Bhuyan of Tezur the search has not ended. He is searching for his lawyer-brother Anupam Bhuyan, who was at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court when the blast occurred.

As the hospitals here were crowded with relatives and friends of the victims, panic gripped the entire city. Attendance in government as well as private offices was thin and vehicle movement was less in streets, while children, traumatised and terrified by gory sights of blast scenes splashed on television and in newspapers, preferred to stay indoors.

Many people, however, made a beeline for the GMCH and other hospitals to donate blood after hospital authorities went public that they were running short of it for treating the injured.

Over 110 activists of the Ellora Vigyan Manch, an NGO engaged in promoting scientific temperament, donated blood at the GMCH and launched a campaign: “Say ‘no’ to bloodshed, ‘yes’ to blood donation.”

The city also witnessed protests and processions in condemnation of the blasts.

Members of the All-Assam Students’ Union tied black cloth around their faces and burnt an effigy of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The Asom Gana Parishad observed a black day and announced a series of agitations demanding the dissolution of the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress coalition government. CPI(M) activists took out a procession, appealing for peace, harmony and a united fight against terrorism.

Lawyers at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court shouted slogans during visits by Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani and Governor S.C. Mathur.

The lawyers wore black badges and boycotted court proceedings.

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