India had just won a cricket match, so when the shooting began outside the Cama and GT Hospital premises at around 10:30 pm, the Waghelas thought it was fans celebrating with fireccrackers.Minutes later, they realised this was much more serious. But by then their elder son was dead. Thakur Waghela, 33, a sweeper at the GT Hospital, was shot dead inside his house."We saw the terrorists when we were standing outside our house. They were wearing caps, black and blue jackets and carried a backpack," said his brother, Bharat. "As the firing began at close quarters, we rushed inside our room."Thakur was with his six-year-old son, Neeraj, in the adjoining house, having dinner and getting ready for the night shift at GT Hospital, along with his father Buddhabhai, who also works as a sweeper at the hospital."I saw the terrorists entering Thakur's room, and within seconds they fired a shot and moved out. We didn't dare open our door until Neeraj came out and said that his father was killed," recalled Bharat."I don't know if anything could have been done to save Thakur at that point, but we were too scared and just shut the doors. It was after Neeraj came out that we gained some confidence and moved out," he said.Thakur had been working at the hospital for the last nine years. His wife, who had gone to meet a cousin in Titwala, was not told about the incident till Thursday morning.The grieving family said they always thought they were safe in the staff quarters of the hospital. "There is always a lot of security due to the police headquarters, the CST railway station and important buildings in the locality. So we didn't worry much about the firing at the railway station," said Buddhabhai. "But we didn't know that terrorists will enter our house and open fire." Another GT Hospital staffer, Bhagan Shinde, was also injured in the firing.
