2 more succumb,blast toll reaches 13

On Saturday,Ahmed,23,a BSc second year student of Wadia College and a talented volleyball player,became the 12th victim of the blast. His family,which is now in Pune,will take his body to Khartoum,capital of Sudan,for the last rites.

“He was a very jovial and cheerful person. I cannot believe I won’t see him again. He had invited me to Sudan,once we complete graduation,to study more about the geology of the oil-rich nation,” said Lavina,his classmate. His teachers too remember him as a jovial individual.

Doctors had earlier amputated both legs of Ahmed,who had won many accolades for his volleyball performance and was a football enthusiast as well. He had suffered second-degree burns in the blast and was admitted to the ICU of Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital.

Ahmed’s friends,waiting outside the mortuary of Sassoon Hospital,recall the day. “On the day of the blast,I was waiting for him in my flat as he had promised to be there by 7.30 pm. We had planned a combined study as our internal exams had started. He did not turn up and by 8 pm,I got to know he was in German Bakery with his friend Anas AlFatih when the blast occurred,” said Bona Malual,Ahmed’s classmate,also from Sudan. AlFatih is critical and is on ventilator support in Jehangir Hospital.

Ahmed’s mother had come to Pune immediately after hearing about the blast. “This is a shock for the family. His legs were amputated and we were waiting for him to recover. However,his death was completely unexpected,as the doctors had said he was responding to treatment. We are shocked. His mother is in a bad state and not ready to come and see her son,” said Altyeb Mudawi Shaigoog,Ahmed’s uncle.

Ahmed is survived by his mother,three sisters and an elder brother who are settled in the Sultanate of Oman. His father had passed away in 2006.