Doc couple live to taste another day

Published on 8/27/2007 

VV Balakrishna

Hyderabad, Aug 26: It was a very sad incident. Such incidents should not recur. Innocent people pay a heavy price in such ghastly incidents, said Asadullah, who was attending to his relatives, who were injured in Gokul Chat Bhandar blast. Asadullah is working as a non-teaching staff in a private school. His relatives MA Mohiuddin Ali Khan (28) and his wife Rahena Sultana (25) were injured in yesterday’s blast. The couple are doctors and were preparing for PG Medical entrance. Ali Khan’s mother runs a school in which Asadullah works. According to Asadullah, the doctor couple wanted to eat kulfi at the Chat Bhandar. Though Ali Khan was a frequent visitor to the Bhandar his wife was a first timer. Mohiuddin explained about the popularity of the Bhandar to his wife and said that it was closed down for several months. ‘‘It reopened recently and we should not miss having a kulfi there,’’ Khan told his wife. He parked his two-wheeler outside the Bhandar and reached the counter. Just as he drew out his purse from his back pocket to take the token, the blast occurred. ‘‘Initially I thought that a cooking gas cylinder blasted. The power went off in the Bhandar,’’ Khan narrated his harrowing experience. Sultana was deafened by the blast. According to relatives, there was a minor damage to his liver. Sultana sustained simple injuries. Recovering from the shock immediately, Khan took an auto-rickshaw and drove straight to a private hospital. The explosive material went through his abdomen and caused a hole. After admitting himself into hospital he rang up his relatives. He knew that it was not a cylinder but a bomb blast. ‘‘Some passersby handed over Khan’s money purse later. His two-wheeler is still lying before the Bhandar,’’ Asadullah said.