With Sudanese student,blast toll reaches 16

Had I asked him to wait for me,he would have been alive now, says Isam Adam,classmate and neighbour of Sudanese student Anas Al Fateh Madani Suleiman,21,who succumbed to injuries suffered in the German Bakery blast on Wednesday.

Had I asked him to wait for me,he would have been alive now, says Isam Adam,classmate and neighbour of Sudanese student Anas Al Fateh Madani Suleiman,21,who succumbed to injuries suffered in the German Bakery blast on Wednesday. We used to go to college together. German Bakery was his favourite hangout. I had spoken to him at 5 pm on the day of the blast. In fact,I was supposed to go there with another friend later in the evening,but my programme got cancelled. I should have told him to wait.

A passionate footballer and an avid Shah Rukh Khan fan,Al Fateh became the 16th victim of the blast when he breathed his last at Jehangir Hospital around 6 am on Wednesday. The body was flown to Mumbai on way to Sudan in the evening,accompanied by his father.

He was a first-year BSC student of Poona College. College principal Anwar Shaikh said Al Fateh was an average student,but a passionate footballer. He had played for the Sudanese team but was never part of the college team; He used to train our players for competitions in the city. We will remember him as a quiet and helpful student.

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His body was taken to the college,where the management and students offered the final prayers. The college had organised prayers for his recovery a day after the blast. It seems our prayers were unanswered, said Chemistry lecturer Iqbal Shaikh. We have organised a condolence meet at 9.30 am on Thursday.

A resident of NIBM Road,Kondhwa,Al Fateh had suffered third-degree burns and the doctors had even planned to amputate his legs at one point of time. I went to see him two days ago and the doctors said his condition was improving. In fact,his mother received me with a smiling face,saying the blood circulation in his legs had improved. On Tuesday,his blood pressure suddenly shot up,after which he stopped responding to the treatment. We were used to cheering him,but crying for him was completely unexpected, said his friend Ibrahim Hashim,a computer science student at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth.

Al Fateh is survived by father Al Fateh Madani,a government servant in Doha,mother,two sisters and a brother. While one of the sisters had come down to Pune immediately after the blast,his parents and the other sister came two days later.

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