Night of Grief

Behind the toll of dead and injured in the Delhi blast lie shattered families, an embattled university and communities grappling with renewed suspicion

- SURESH K. PANDEY

IT was a night weighed down by grief. Voices cracked in the chaos around Delhi’s Red Fort in the national capital while families moved through the dark with nothing but hope to guide them.

The blast on November 10 was not only measured in blaring ambulances and frantic police calls. Its onerous weight was felt in the silence between those waiting for news and in the unease that settled over communities now shadowed by suspicion. In the centre of the capital, the violence left marks that do not appear on any casualty list.

As the news travelled through the city, Mohammad Jumman’s wife, Tanuja, reached Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, near Delhi Gate, in panic with their 10-year-old son. His brother Chand moved between the gates in disbelief.

Jumman, 35, from Shastri Nagar in Northeast Delhi, had last been traced near Lal Qila (Red Fort), where he was stuck in traffic at the time of the blast. Then his phone went silent. He had told his wife he would be home for dinner. Now his son held up photographs of him to anyone willing to pause. Jumman leaves behind three children and a household forced into sudden and brutal loss.

Across the hospital, Mohammad Mohsin's family faced the same anguish. Mohsin, 35, from Meerut, had moved to Delhi two years ago with his wife and two children. His phone was found at the blast site. His sister-in-law hounded the media crews as she showed his photograph on her phone while sobbing. The hospital staff had first told the family he was not on the list of the injured. Through the night both families moved between LNJP hospital's emergency ward and the mortuary as they searched for confirmation and held on to hope.

“All night we kept looking,” Tanuja said, her voice breaking, as she tried to shield her son from TV cameras. “We checked everywhere and every stretcher. We thought maybe he was unconscious somewhere. Maybe someone admitted him without telling us.”