Taking his relatives out for a treat, he never came back

B Y V L Srinivasan

Published on August 27, 2007

HYDERABAD: The eerie silence in a dingy lane at Moosarambagh is occasionally broken by the wails of the inmates who lost one among them in the bomb blast at Gokul Chat at Koti on Saturday night.

Ever since the tragic news of the death of 22-year-old Mohammad Waheed alias Basith spread, there has been a steady stream of relatives and neighbours started calling on the grieving family members since Saturday night.

Waheed is second of the two sons of a scrap dealer Mohammad Yusuf and Shaheda Begum.

Interestingly, Waheed’s house is located in the same place where the prime suspect in the Mecca Masjid terror attack and last night’s blasts Shahed alias Bilal used to live till a few years ago.

Watching cricket has been the favourite pastime of Waheed but as soon as the intermittent rain stopped, he gathered around 10 relatives, young and old, and went to the eatery in a Toyota Qualis.

While others waited in the vehicle parked on the opposite side of Gokul Chat, Waheed crossed the road to fetch the items for others. His first visit was all fine but the second one proved to be fatal. “We received a phone call around 7:45 p.m. that there was a big blast and Waheed could not be traced,” Waheed’s maternal uncle Husamuddin told this website's newspaper.

Worried by the news, Husamuddin rushed to Koti but received another message that Waheed was located with severe injuries and was being rushed to Yashoda Hospital at Malakpet.

“By the time I reached the hospital, the doctors declared him brought dead,” Husamuddin said. It was he who conveyed the news to Shaheda Begum. Waheed was injured in the head and his left hand was broken due to the impact of the blast. But for this, there was no other wound on the entire body.

A distraught looking Mohd Yusuf said that his son never had the habit of going out. “Lekin Allah ki marjee thee ki mera bete ko bulaliya (But the Almighty wanted him and he went),” Yusuf said.

“When I fractured my thigh due to a fall a few months ago, it was Waheed who took me for treatment,” a limping Yusuf said in an emotion-choked voice.

Anger has been writ large on the faces of the people who alleged that the city police treat them as criminals for not wearing helmets but failed to apprehend the anti-national elements.

“The State Government should punish the culprits to which ever caste, creed or religion they belong,” Khaiser, who came for a holiday from Gulf, said.