They were all waiting to celebrate his second birthday, but little Pranav arrived, tucked in the arms of his mother, still hiding a speck of a smile on his face, in a stone cold steel coffin. The bodies of Sunu Sathyan and her 18-month-old son, both killed in Libya, were consigned to flames at Sunu’s husband Vipin’s house at Veliyannur, near Pala, on Saturday evening.
Sunu’s parents had not seen their first grandchild and were planning to celebrate his second birthday on May 2. The family was to return from Libya on April 10.
The mother and son were killed on March 25, Good Friday, when a stray grenade hit their residence at Sabratha, Libya, where the couple was working as nurses at Zawiya Medical Centre.
An ordeal for husband
The last two weeks were an ordeal for Vipin as he had to deal with varied complexities in strife-torn Libya to bring back the bodies.
The bodies were moved from Shara Zawiya Central Hospital, Tripoli, to the domestic airport in Tunis by a local air service, taken to the international airport in Tunisia by road, and from there to Doha and to Kochi by air. However, Vipin had taken a flight to Istanbul from Tripoli and from there to Dubai and then to Kochi.
The bodies arrived in Kochi by 8.10 a.m. Vipin arrived 45 minutes later. The bodies were taken to a private hospital at Koothattukulam, moved to a steel mobile mortuary, and taken to Vipin’s house at Veliyannur where hundreds had already gathered.
Jose K. Mani, MP; Mons Joseph, MLA; and Uzhavoor Vijayan, NCP State president, were among those who paid homage to the victims.
