Bashir Ahmed was living his dream. His application for admission to an undergraduate course at Delhi University had been cleared a week back and the only hurdle to a good “Indian education” and a professional career in Afghanistan was the simple visa process at the Indian Embassy.All formalities completed, the 20-year-old student just required a photocopy of his passport. He decided to hop across to the shop on the other side of the road. That was when the suicide bombers struck. Apart from the four Indians, 50 Afghan citizens were killed in the blast last Monday at the Indian Embassy — visa seekers, policemen, passers-by, and among them Ahmed.The suicide attack not only ripped through the Indian sense of security in Afghanistan but also shattered the dreams of scores of Afghan citizens who depend on India for healthcare, education and employment. What makes education in India worthwhile is the high value given to it by Afghan employers —jobs pay more than double with an Indian tag.“His parents lived in Pakistan but they wanted Bashir to have a good education in India. They said that India has the best education in the world. Bashir wanted to come back and help the government of Afghanistan. But our neighbour (Pakistan) did not like the good relations between our countries,” says Ahmad Fawad, Ahmed’s cousin brother who is a second-year student at a Delhi college, from his bed at the Italian-run Emergency Hospital in the city.Fawad had gone with Ahmed to help fill out the visa form and was standing next to him at the photocopy shop when the blast occurred. All he remembers is the sound of the explosion and the searing pain when he woke up in hospital.Perhaps the saddest story of the blast is about Ahmed Shah, whose family was waiting at another photocopy shop. Other than Shah, who was not at the Embassy, the only survivor from his family after the blast is a three-year-old girl, the youngest of three children. His wife, sister and other children did not even make it to hospital. Other than visa seekers and the eight Afghan policemen who were killed in the attack, the busy street in front of the Embassy — which has a school and the main office of the Afghan Interior Ministry — meant that innocent passers-by were among the victims, including a teacher and her four children who were on their way to school The sole breadwinner of a family of nine, Mohammad Mahidi was walking to the Interior Ministry office to sort out some paperwork for a piece of land he wanted to purchase when shrapnel from the blast shattered his left leg. Doctors at Emergency Hospital were left with no choice but to amputate it above the knee.“My children are too small, the two boys are 10 years’ old and they cannot do any work, My father is too old. I want my leg to get better but don’t know if I can work,” Mahidi told The Indian Express with the help of a translator. An odd jobs man who could also dabble with machinery, he is not sure if his physical impairment will allow him to work again.There are few doubts that scars of the blast will take a long time to heal, but the attackers may have missed their goal: of hitting India-Afghanistan ties. As the Embassy resumed visa operations on Sunday, there were already students lined up for visas. As for Fawad, he says he will be back in Delhi next month, continuing his studies.
