They were on the way to the city from Bangalore to buy vehicle spare parts and were confident of returning by the evening bus. They had booked return tickets through the same travel agency and the same bus, but fate had something else in store for them.
Haseeb Ahmed and Saqeeb Ahmed, both brothers, who work as car mechanics at RBI layout in Bangalore were charred to death in the bus fire at Mahabubnagar on Wednesday morning.
The two started in the ill-fated bus from City Market in Bangalore. “I dropped them at the transit point. They told me that they will be back on Thursday morning but see what has happened to them,” said Khateeb, their elder brother.
Haseeb was married to Nazneen Khanum in 2009 while plans were afoot for the marriage of Saqeeb. “Both of them were hard working and frequently came to Hyderabad to buy spare parts from different markets only to earn some money,” a relative said. “I spoke to Haseeb on Tuesday night at 11.30 p.m. for sometime and he promised to return back on Thursday,” recalled Nazneen sobbing inconsolably at the OGH mortuary.
The family came to know about the incident on Wednesday morning and hurriedly went to Jabbar Travels office in Bangalore. “The manager told us to wait for sometime. Later, we started for Mahabubnagar and reached the city in the night. We could not identify the bodies as they were charred beyond recognition,” said Nazneen.
On Thursday, the family members visited the A P Forensic Science Laboratory at Red Hills for DNA test. “The authorities informed us that the bodies will be handed over after their identity is matched and it could take at least a week,” Khateeb said.
The family members plan to return to Bangalore and wait for the call from the Forensic Lab to collect the bodies. They demanded a thorough enquiry into the accident and stringent punishment to the guilty.
