Six years on, echoes of the blast which forever shattered the tranquility of Pune, still reverberates. The high-intensity bomb which ripped through city’s German Bakery on the fatal day of February 13, 2010, killing 17 people and wounding 58, has irrevocably scarred the city’s psyche, bringing it under the terror radar.
The >Bombay High Court’s verdict of Thursday , which commuted the death penalty of Mirza Himayat Baig, has predictably elicited sharp responses from the victims and the kin of the accused.
“It is a disappointing verdict which does little to mitigate the pain of the kith and kin of the victims. He [Baig] ought to have been hanged a long time ago. It has been an arduous, and often, nerve-racking trial for all of us. All the same, we have to accept the court verdict and believe that the probe agencies are doing the best job they can,” said Snehal Kharose, proprietor, German Bakery.
Yet paradoxically, German Bakery, ensconced in a leafy avenue in Koregaon Park and an iconic fixture in Pune’s youthful zeitgeist since 1988, has risen like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of adversity.
“It was, naturally, very hard on us in the immediate aftermath of the blast. We invested all of the compensation money [Rs. 14 lakh] apart from borrowing a sizable loan. My mother was afflicted with health problems,” she says, reminiscing the dire days.
The Bakery underwent extensive renovation, reopening 35 months to enthusiastic patronage. It has further expanded, with two new outlets, one in bustling Law College Road which opened last year in January, christened German Bakery Wunderbar and another one in Lonavala, which became functional in February this year.
“If anything, the number of footfalls has dramatically increased since the blast…people are hardly deterred by the memory of the blast or haunted by the spectre of the terrorist strike,” says Ms. Kharose.
But for Madhu Agarwala, mother of Rajeev Agarwala who passed away in the blast, the unforgiving memory of that fatal day will permanently be etched in her mind.
“I feel cheated by this verdict. My son, who was such a bright student with a promising future, will never return to me. So, why have they spared him [Baig]?” she asks, amid tears of bitterness. Presently residing in Kolkata, Ms. Agarwala on Friday feels no inclination to visit Pune.
Rajeev was a final student at the Symbiosis Law College here. The college later instituted an award and a medal in his memory.
On the other side, the kin of the prime accused, Himayat Baig family, the long struggle to clear his allegedly tarnished reputation has only begun.
“Every charge against him is baseless…all he wished to do in life was to teach. Now, he is embroiled in this Anti-Terrorism Squad plot to frame an innocent Muslim boy. It is utter rubbish when the investigators claim they found RDX in Himayat’s home,” said Tariq Baig, Himayat’s brother.
According to city-based activist and president of the Mulniwasi Muslim Manch, Anjum Inamdar, Himayat has been persistent and vocal about his innocence, bombarding jail authorities in Pune and Mumbai with letters regarding his case.
For the Maharashtra ATS, the verdict has come as a setback.
“Baig has been convicted under five sections. We will naturally study the Court judgment and contemplate on our next course of action,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bhanupratap Barge of the ATS.
While the debate over Himayat Baig’s guilt or innocence rages on, the bomb has transmuted the cityscape, almost dividing it into two cultural epochs – the milieu before February 2010 and the one after that.
“I personally miss the ambience of the old Bakery before the explosion rocked us. The present look is more trendy and homogenous,” says Ms. Kharose.
“However, one must pull on, come what may,” she added.
