New Delhi, November 8
Eight-year-old Kirti is almost stoic in her silence. Perhaps she is too young to comprehend the enormity of the series of events that changed her life and that of hundreds of other kin of blast victims on that cruel day of October 29.
As others who lost their loved ones to the deadly blasts in the Capital just two days before Divali, Kirti lost her sister and mother in the Sarojini Nagar blast.
But like all others, together in this hour of grief with her, one thing she is quite sure of——that the men who turned her small world topsy turvy on that fateful evening must die. Kirti’s father died a couple of years back and now she is in the care of her aged grandfather.
“The killers must die,” mumbled Kirti. Similar thoughts were echoed as the kin of blast victims stood facing media persons in the Constitution Club today, together in their grief and misery and demanding nothing less that death penalty for those responsible. With tear-stained eyes and wails of sheer helplessness, anguish and grief echoing all around, they said they would settle for nothing less than that.
“How can even anyone suggest anything less than a death penalty for those responsible for such a brutal act. Only someone who has been through the horror that we have been forced to live through the rest of our lives can understand our state of mind,” says Sunita, who lost her daughter in the killer blast. Choked with emotion, she could barely manage to speak. And when she did speak, it was to demand the strictest possible punishment for those responsible for the ghastly act.
Bhagwan Das and his wife Selina Das are still looking for the remains of their son who “went missing” after the bomb blast at Sarojini Nagar. Their 16-year-old grandson was shopping with his father on the fateful day in the busy market when the blast occurred.
After looking through a rubble of metal and body parts in the market they reached Safdarjung hospital at 7.30 pm. “ But due to VIP movements, I did not know what had been the fate of my children till 1.30 am the next day.”
Till date he has not been able to locate the body of his son despite DNA test of the unclaimed bodies.“ You think the author of
such devastation deserves any mercy,” he questions. Most relatives say they were kept waiting outside hospitals for almost six
Hours, while their kin were battling with death inside. “A last minute meeting with them could have made a big difference to them as well as us,” says Bhagwan Das with tears in his eyes.
These are just a few of the stories of as many as 61 persons who were killed on that fateful day when bomb explosions shattered the festive mood of the entire nation. They are all unanimous that capital punishment should not be abolished and those who carry out such attacks should be given the death sentence.
Brought together on a common front by the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front chief, Mr M.S. Bitta, they later met President A.P.J Abdul Kalam and presented a memorandum supporting the death sentence.
Giving them support was Swaran Kaur, who lost 18 members of her family in an attack during days of unrest in Punjab. “ I spent savings of my life fighting court cases. And now there are talks that the men who gunned down my family might win Presidential pardon. How can this happen,” she questions angrily.
The kin of victims are also upset that even after 10 days of the incident, all that the police has managed to do is release a sketch. “ No one has been arrested”
Mr Bitta urged the government not to abolish the death penalty in such heinous crimes. “ The case of a convict on death row should not be sent to the Home Ministry or the Law Ministry for reference after the Supreme Court has announced its judgement,” he said.
Demanding stringent laws to prosecute terrorists, he said special fast-track anti-terrorist military courts should be set up, which would decide cases speedily and give punishment without any scope of being influenced.
