After fighting for life for a week, Sudanese student Amjed Algazoli (25) succumbed on Saturday to his injuries sustained in February 13 blast at the German Bakery. Mr. Algazoli, who was admitted to the Inlaks Budhrani hospital, died around 1 a.m., making him the third foreign national to die in the blast.
The other two foreigners who died in the blast were Iranian Saied Abdulkhani (26) and Italian Nadia Macerini (37).
Atul Ganpat Anap (30) died at the King Edward Memorial (KEM) on Saturday, making him the 13th person to die in the blast. Mr. Anap, a software engineer, used to work at Reliance Communications in Navi Mumbai. After the blast, he was first taken to the Sassoon hospital, then the Jehangir hospital before finally being admitted to the KEM hospital. Rita Anap, his wife, was also admitted to the ICU at the KEM hospital.
Mr. Anap’s brother said that he had got a job at Idea in Pune. The Anaps wanted to settle down in Pune. His wife had an interview at a private company in the city’s Yerawada region on February 13. After the interview, they went to the German Bakery.
Mr. Algazoli was a second-year BSc (Geology) student at the Wadia College and had come to Pune in 2007. He lived in the city’s Kondhwa area.
Bona Malual, a Sudanese and one of Mr. Algazoli’s classmates, recalled him as a football aficionado as his friends and relatives waited for his post-mortem to be completed at the Sassoon General Hospital. “He helped the Sudanese football team win the Symbiosis Cup last month. When he played in the Pune University team, it came second just a week before the bombing,” Mr. Malual said.
Both legs of Mr. Algazoli, a football and volleyball player, had to be amputated soon after the blast to save his life, said Dr. Asha Relwani, medical superintendent of the Inlaks Budhrani hospital. Hours before his death, he had also started going into septicaemia, wherein the infection of the burns spreads to the entire body, she said.
On February 13, Mr. Algazoli had gone to the Bakery with Anas AlFatih (25), another Sudanese footballer, who was doing the Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) course at the Symbiosis University. Mr. Algazoli was waiting for his tea at a table, while Mr. AlFatih was making a call to some friends at the Bakery’s entrance when the explosion happened. Mr. AlFatih has suffered over 78 per cent chest burns and is undergoing treatment at the Jehangir Hospital.
“Amjed Algazoli’s condition was a little better than that of Anas. Yet he was the one who died,” said Sohaib Jadalla Badawi, another Sudanese friend of Mr. Algazoli’s. “I came to Pune just six months ago to study at the Symbiosis Law College. Amjed helped me get settled. He was good to everyone, even non-Sudanese students.”
Desire to study in Pune
Mr. Algazoli’s uncle, Eltayib Shaygog, said, “it was Algazoli’s desire to study in Pune. It is said to be a peaceful place and so we sent him here. We didn’t know this would happen.”
Mr. Algazoli’s mother, Amal, and his uncle and aunt came to India from Oman, where they are settled, after coming to know that he was injured in the blast. Mr. Algazoli’s father died in 2006. He has a brother and three sisters. His mother, uncle and aunt will take his body to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan where they originally come from, for the last rites.
Two injured persons Aditi Jindal and Amrapali Chavan continue to be critical in the Intensive Care Unit of the Inlaks Budhrani hospital, while three others, Vikas Tulsyani, Rajiv Agarwala and Anas AlFatih are critical in the ICU of the Jehangir hospital.
