Wrapped in white cotton sheets, the bodies of the 12 people who died in the Delhi High Court blast was handed over to inconsolable relatives on Thursday afternoon after the post-mortem was conducted at Lady Hardinge Hospital.
Joined by common grief, family members, relatives and friends of the victims huddled outside the otherwise isolated corner of the hospital, breaking down as each body was wheeled out and handed back to the family members.
“There are no words to explain the death of young Amanpreet Singh Jolly. Terrorism and terrorists don't discriminate and we have learned this the hard way. The death has shaken the family and there is no way we can explain the grief. The boy did not even get a chance at living his life and was snatched away way too soon. How do you explain to a parent the fact that his child is no more,'' said Gurpreet Singh, a friend of the family.
“I have seen Amanpreet growing up and today he is no more. I feel sad but that isn't all, I feel angry at the terrorist who have had the courage to kill innocent people who are going about their daily work,” he added.
In a heart wrenching display of grief, family members and friends of Amanpreet Singh walked along side the ambulance in the hospital carrying him to the out gate singing hymns and sobbing quietly.
“We stand outside the mortuary, we look around and see that there are so many people who have lost their lives in the blast. These are ordinary people who came to the court, seeking justice. They did not mean any harm to anyone. Today we can't get beyond our loss and pain may be someday we will heal,'' said Gurpreet, as the ambulance left the hospital carrying Amanpreet's body.
Too emotionally drained to speak family members of the 55-year-old Nalini Aggarwal pushed away the waiting media. “We don't want to speak to any one, please just leave us alone,'' was the repeated plea of the family members as they claimed and took away Nalini's body.
Most family members chose to stay away from the media and opted to whisk away the bodies of the deceased as soon as the post-mortem was conducted. Some, however, complained about the government not doing enough for the victims.
‘No proper treatment ’
Ahmed, friend of the deceased Pramod Kumar Chaurasia (40) complained that the hospital neglected giving proper treatment to Pramod.
“He has left behind four young children and used to run an electronic items shop in Delhi. Now we aren't sure of how the family will pull through. What we can't understand is that when doctors told us on Wednesday night that Pramod is out of danger, how did he suddenly die on Thursday morning? Also, there was delay in handing over his body to his family members,” said Mr. Ahmed.
“We have lost a good friend in Pramod but the real loss is for the children. While Pramod is dead because of blast all that we can hope for is that the government is able to contain the spread of terrorism,'' added Mr. Ahmed.
A senior medical official at Lady Hardinge said: “We started getting the bodies in by 8 a.m. on Thursday and by afternoon all the bodies were handed back to the families of the victims. We have followed a set protocol during the procedure and have handed over the relevant reports and other articles to the police.''
