Weekend Edition with Rajdeep: Blasts survivors speak

THE FACE OF REALITY: CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai with one of the victims in Asarva Civil Hospital.

                

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26/11: Terror comes precariously close

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Ahmedabad is still coming to terms with the horrors of July 26, when within a span of 70 minutes, as many as 21 bombs exploded, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than a 150.

Civil Hospital in Asarva, Gujarat was, in many ways, the epicentre of the blasts. At least 25 people lost their lives when a Wagon R car exploded right outside the hospital. Good Samaritans who had come to help people were killed, and doctors who were supposed to provide healing touch to the injured, were blown to bits. Never before in the genealogy of terror has a hospital been targeted in this manner.

Aftermath of blasts

At the B4 ward of the hospital, victims of the blast are still coming to terms with that tragedy.

Manju Achalya, the medical superintendent of the hospital, was just 10 metres away from the blast site.

She says she hasn't been able to sleep since the fateful day of the blasts.

"I was so busy for the last five that I had no time to think about it. But last night, I had time to think about the incident, which happened in front of my eyes. I so felt threatened and scared, I couldn't sleep the whole night," she says.

What troubles her most is the realisation that the trauma centre, which is the heart of a hospital, too, could be a target of a terror attack.

She says she can never forget the blast scene. "I saw fire, parts of vehicles and what not up in the air. This is not an act any brave person can do. If you've got animosity, you fight on the war front and not with the people who are already injured and weak," she says.

Coming to terms with reality

Mukesh Patni's story, symbolises Ahmedabad's tragedy. He was rushing the injured to the hospital when another bomb exploded.

"I was rushing people to the hospital on a trolley. But as I was entering the hospital with the injured, another bomb went off. All those with me who were helping the injured were killed in that blast. I saw a man burning. He was crying for help but there was no one to help him, because everybody was just too scared," he says.

Mukesh Patni's story is reflective of what happened in Ahmedabad that day - he was trying to help others but he became a victim himself.

Among those injured were little children like seven-year-old Nisha, who were in the playground right opposite the Civil Hospital. Nisha suffered several injuries, but her brother, who was there with her, was killed.

"She and her cousin brother were playing in the ground. She got injured but her brother, unfortunately died. She doesn't know that yet. She fell unconscious so she doesn't know," Manju Achalya says.

How does a seven-year-old come to terms with what has happened?

"We are offering them psychiatric help. We've got a child psychologist who gives them psychotherapy sessions daily. We are planning the rehabilitation of all the children," Achalya says.

At the burns ward of the Civil Hospital, some of the most critically injured are receiving treatment. The Makwana couple are a particularly tragic case. Hansa Makwana works at the trauma centre of the hospital. On July 26, she and her husband were on their way to work when the bomb outside the hospital exploded.