New Delhi   

Slain journalist cremated

NEW DELHI: The body of journalist Sabina Sehgal Saikia, who was killed in the terror attack in Mumbai, was consigned to flames at the Lodi Road crematorium here on Sunday in the presence of a large number of relatives, friends and colleague.

Consulting Editor with The Times of India, Sabina was in Mumbai for a wedding reception but returned to her room at the Taj Mahal hotel early from the function complaining of fatigue. Some of her last SMS messages to her husband Santanu Saikia were “Desperate firing outside. My window panes are shattered” and “I am hiding under the bed”.

Sabina’s body was flown to the Capital on Saturday night and brought to her home in South Delhi.

She is survived by her husband, a teen-aged daughter and a son.

In a statement, SAHMAT expressed shock and sadness at the news of the death Sabina in the terrorist attack.

A steadfast supporter of SAHMAT, Sabina was a driving force and inspiration behind the “Artists Against Communalism” events in Delhi in 1991 and at Shivaji Park in Mumbai in 1992, it said.

“Sabina travelled with us to the cities where the ‘Anhad Garje’, our Sufi-Bhakti programme, was held in the immediate aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. ‘Mukt-Naad’ at Ayodhya that was held under very difficult circumstances was another event where some of the greatest classical musicians and dancers of the country performed in defence of our secular traditions, almost all under Sabina’s initiatives,” the statement added.

Sabina was the founder secretary of SPIC MACAY and learnt classical music from Ustad Zahiruddin Dagar and Faiyazuddin Dagar.

A former colleague of Sabina at The Economic Times, U.N. Tankha, said: “I had spoken to her only a few days ago about a book on recipes. Sabina was a warm hearted person and her pieces on food were taken very seriously by hotel owners.”

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