‘We identified him by his T-shirt’

A resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli, Ansari was in Delhi to procure items for his shop when the explosion in front of Red Fort killed him.

- Paras Singh and Deepak Lavania

He was the sole breadwinner of the family. “He visited old Delhi regularly to buy supplies for his shop. He was accompanied by his cousin Amaan, who was injured,” said his uncle Furgan. An acquaintance, Virasat, who dropped them off at Chandni Chowk, grew worried when the two didn’t return to the pick up spot for over an hour. “I decided to go to Chandni Chowk but noticed lots of police and barricading near Red Fort. People told me there had been a blast,” said Virasat. At the LNJP mortuary, his father Imran fainted as he identified his son’s body. “He was running the household. Who will take care of this family now?” asked a relative.

For 20 hours, Jumman’s family desperately searched for him - at the hospital, the mortuary, and the area around Red Fort — and hoped he had somehow escaped unhurt. On Tuesday evening, they found his mangled body under a sheet at the Lok Nayak hospital mortuary. Survived by his handicapped wife and their children, Jumman lived in Delhi's Shastri Park and was the sole breadwinner. “We saw the news of the blast on TV and started calling him. His e-rickshaw was GPS enabled, and the last known location was outside Red Fort, so we rushed there but didn’t find him,” said his griefstricken uncle Mohammad Idris. Tired and clueless they returned home on Tuesday only to be called back to the hospital to identify a body. “His legs were missing and body badly damaged. We identified him through his T-shirt... Who will look after his children now? An entire family has been destroyed,” said Idris.