Where justice scores a nought

More than two months after he was killed in the Dilsukhnagar blasts, Md. Rafiuddin’s father Md. Ameeruddin is trying to cut through the tangle of bureaucratic red tape for the promised government job

Ameeruddin (right) with his elder son Shamsuddin at the Hyderabad District Collectorate where they came to seek compensation on Thursday. Photo: G. Ramakrishna

For a man who has worked all his life as a salesman, Md. Ameeruddin, 58, is expected to be patient.

The ill-fated turn of events in the last few months, when his youngest son Md. Rafiuddin, 22, died in the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts, however, has left him broken, angry and frustrated.

Rafiuddin, who worked at Vani Leather Shop at Dilsukhnagar, was killed on the spot in the first bomb blast on February 21.

“I am angry because there is no hope of justice for my family, which has lost a breadwinner while the perpetrators of the blast are still scott-free. I am frustrated because I am tired of running from pillar to post for the job that government had promised,” he says, sitting in his two-room house at Hafiz Baba Nagar, Chandrayangutta.

On Thursday, Ameeruddin’s family was asked to come to the Hyderabad District Collectorate.

“The officials offered us a sweeper’s job at the Government ENT Hospital at Koti. I am not sure if I would ask my second son Aleemuddin to become a sweeper for the rest of his life,” Ameeruddin says.

Hopeful of support, Ameeruddin had stopped going for work after the blasts.

He now says that it was wrong on his part to expect sympathy from State government.

“Why can’t they open a separate department or office to look after the needs of families of blast victims? They simply do not have the humane touch,” he complains.

Ever since the death of Rafiuddin, Ameeruddin and his elder son Shamsuddin had to face the web of bureaucracy and make numerous visits from Hafiz Baba Nagar to the local Mandal office at Falaknuma as well as several visits to the Hyderabad Collector’s office for the compensation and documentation required for a government job.

“We are tired of strange requests. One day, officials suddenly called and asked us to prove that we lived with our father. So, we had to take our neighbours and a few friends to Hyderabad Collector office to vouch for us. There are several such instances,” Shamsuddin recalls.

The father laments that he did not provide proper education to his three sons Shamsuddin, Aleemuddin and the deceased Rafiuddin.

“All of them worked as salespersons in shops. We are a joint family and live on daily wages. Every penny is important. Rafi’s death has impacted our lives and I am not sure when it will all be normal again,” he says.