Hyderabad: Life has not been easy for Salman, aged 18 years, who was injured in the Mecca Masjid blast that occurred on May 18, 2007. The teenager was then around eight years old when, along with his cousin Ghouse, he was injured in a blast at the historic mosque where they had gone to offer Friday afternoon prayers.
“I have grown in misery and hardship these past 11 years. After getting severely injured in the blast I was hospitalised for about a month and half and operated on to remove splinters from my legs. It still pains if I stand for long. I cannot do strenuous work,” he says. Salman now does petty business on a push cart and sells plasticware at evening markets across the city. “I earn about Rs 200 to Rs 250 a day and manage to get by. Two years ago, I went along with a local mason for work at a construction site but could not do the hard, labourious work. I had to take rest for a fortnight as my legs pained,” he recalled.
A compensation of about Rs 90,000 was paid by the government to the family. “My father left us about 14 years ago, so my mother used the money to marry off my sister,” he said.
When asked about the punishment for those responsible for his plight he said, “We have faith in the Allah and believe that the guilty will be punished somehow one day. The only thing I demand is that the guilty should get a fitting punishment,” he said. Salman and Ghouse together lived at a small dwelling behind the Masjid. Now he has shifted out from the place while Ghouse continues to stay in the tiny dwelling with his parents. Ghouse was six years old when he got injured.
“Somehow, he was admitted in a local school and he is now studying in grade nine. We have faith in the judiciary and hope justice is rendered to us. The guilty should be punished. We have waited for 11 long years,” said Syed Mahboob, father of Ghouse.
About 58 persons were injured in the twin blast at the historic Mecca Masjid. The blasts were allegedly carried out by the right wing groups.
