HYDERABAD: Eleven years ago, on the rainy day of August 25, an improvised explosive device (IED) was at an arm’s length of Puneet Vijayvergiya, owner of the busy Gokul Chat in Koti. And, with Raksha Bandhan and quarterly examinations around the corner, the lane was filled with women and students making their purchases, not to forget the bustling vehicular movement in the area.
At around 7:35 pm, even before the news of a bomb exploding at Lumbini Park could reach the denizens, the IED at Gokul Chat exploded. Puneet, aged 25 then, was seated by the entrance. The impact of the blast was such that he was thrown to the median on the main road. With shrapnel entering his body and a fist-sized bolt breaking through his skull, chances of surviving were bleak.
“I, somehow, survived to see this day,” recollects Puneet, describing the fateful Saturday of August 2007. “The doctors said, I couldn’t survive due to the bolt but after several plastic surgeries, I am here at the same place.”
Until the day of the blast, the eatery had no mechanism of frisking its customers. Premchand Vijayvergiya, the other owner of the establishment, reminisced that the sound of the blast was extremely loud. “The impact has been such that even if a tyre bursts, we recall that day. The sound was too loud for anyone to have their eardrum intact,” he said.