Four years on,pain lingers for kin of blast victims

Four years after the blasts,families of the victims continue to live with memories of their loved ones. Singh is among many who gathered at the all-religion prayer meet at Sarojini Nagar Market on Thursday to commemorate the victims. Fifty people had died in the blast at the busy market.

“I reached the Safdarjung Hospital (where his brother and family were taken after the blast) at 4 am. I was frightened,” says Balvir Singh,50. “I paced the hospital corridors searching for them.”

He was then taken to the mortuary. “There were burnt bodies everywhere.” At the mortuary,he recognised the bodies of his brother and his wife.

He falls silent. “He was the youngest among my brothers.”

His niece and nephew,however, could not be found. Singh stayed at the hospital for four days trying to trace Nikhil (3) and Priyanka (7).

“Their bodies were completely charred,” he says. It was through DNA testing that identification was done.

Resident of South Extension,Indu Poddar received a call on this day four years ago,informing her that her husband and two children had been admitted in Safdurjung Hospital. Her seven-year-old son Karan was dead,but husband Vinod and daughter Diksha survived.

“We were eating chaat at the market. Just as papa turned to pay,there was an explosion and everything went black,” says Diksha,16.

The families of the blast victims,part of the “South Asian Forum of People against Terrorism”,will be presenting a petition to the President soon.