He came from Iraq to Delhi for his son’s surgery. Now he waits outside a mortuary

“We booked a room on the fifth floor of the hotel after admitting my son,” Habib told The Indian Express.

On Wednesday morning, he said he woke up to shouts and screams of people in the hotel. By the time he realised a fire had broken out, he said the flames had spread to the second floor.

“Some people, who were outside, broke the window to the room and placed a ladder… I got down using it, but Ali ran from the smoke-filled room, down the stairs,” said Habib.

“My son is still in surgery at Max,” he said, breaking down again.

Of those killed, 12 were foreign nationals from Bangladesh and Liberia, Nigeria, and Mozambique in Africa. They were in Delhi either for medical treatment or accompanying family members undergoing treatment.

‘Don’t know if her husband knows’

At the AIIMS mortuary, Maria, a Liberian woman in her 20s, stepped out of an auto-rickshaw. About a week ago, she said she got a call from her aunt, Janjay Roland, 61, that she was coming to Delhi for her husband’s treatment.

Maria, from Liberia, lost her aunt in the fire. (Express Photo by Shreya Singhai)

“I was so happy,” Maria said. “I had left Liberia two years ago to pursue my graduation in India. I hadn’t seen anyone from my country since then… I was going to meet my aunt this weekend.”

Janjay was among the victims.

At the mortuary, Maria held up a picture of Janjay’s ID, asking where her body was. “She arrived last week and got her husband admitted to Max. I still haven’t seen him. I don’t know whether he knows…,” she added.

‘They came for a surgery’

Two representatives from the Nigerian Embassy said at least five Nigerians lost their lives in their fire. The bodies of a mother and son — Esther, 53, and David, 30 — were at the AIIMS mortuary. “We don’t know who the other three are. We have come to ID them, and then inform their families,” said one of the officials.

They said Esther and David were in the city for Esther’s surgery at Max, and had taken a room on the ground floor of the B&B.

“Esther was admitted on May 11 and discharged on May 18… The company which got them here informed her family in Nigeria. We will be sending their bodies…, “ said the representative.