SIGACHI INDUSTRIES EXPLOSION: A DEAFENING BLAST, A LINGERING SILENCE

On the morning of June 30, a powerful explosion tore through a chemical factory in Telangana's Sangareddy district, its echo heard for kilometres.

- Naveen Kumar

Forty-four workers were confirmed dead, over 30 injured, and at least eight remain missing. Most of the workforce were migrants, clocking long shifts for modest wages. As families gathered outside morgues and rescue zones, a grim picture began to emerge — of alleged ignored warnings, delayed responses and silence from those in charge, reports

The morning of July 2 dawned under a stubborn drizzle, the kind that clung to skin and silence alike. Outside the scorched ruins of Sigachi Industries, 35-year-old Savreen Parbin stood beneath a tree near the factory's main gate, her dupatta soaked, her hands clutching a mobile phone and an Aadhaar card. They belonged to her husband, Tasallimuddin Ansari. The last things she would carry back home to her children.

Just days earlier, the 40-year-old contract worker from Dawa village of Bihar's Bhojpur district had become a permanent employee at the chemical factory in Telangana's Sangareddy district, earning a monthly salary of ₹20,000 after three years on the job.

On the morning of June 30, he had joined over 140 workers for duty and by 9 a.m., he was one of 44 confirmed dead. His body was buried under the debris of a collapsed G+1 production shed, that came down by a deafening blast that shook the town and shattered families.

"He had called me at 7.20 a.m.," recalls Parbin, her voice barely rising above the mist that hung thick with the faint stench of ammonia.

"He was walking to work then. I didn't tell our children about the blast. I flew down to Hyderabad alone. They kept asking if I was bringing their father back home," she adds, sobbing.

Now, drenched in the drizzle, she waited, like dozens of others, for a name, a body, an answer.

Inside the factory compound, 47 kilometres from Hyderabad, rescue teams picked through blackened rubble and chemical fumes that grew more suffocating with each step toward the gate.