PALAKKAD: They were closest of friends - so much so that even death couldn’t separate them. Irfana Sherin P A, Ridha Fathima, Nidha Fathima K M and Aysha A S, all students of Class VIII at Karimba Government HSS, were snatched away by fate’s cruel hands when a truck transporting cement careened out of control, toppled, and fell over them.
“They were never apart,” says Haseena Rafeek, a member of the Karimba grama panchayat and a member of Ridha’s family.
“Ridha is the daughter of my husband’s cousin. This was the route that the children always took to get back home,” she added, sobbing uncontrollably. They were hardly a kilometre away from home.
“The children were best friends who played, studied and even ate together,” she said.
According to M S Nasar, a member of the parent teacher association (PTA) of the school, they had studied together right from the lower primary (LP) section.
“The children lived in the same locality and were friends all through school,” he adds.
News that their only daughter Nidha is no longer with them is yet to sink in for Abdul Saleem and Nabeesa.“Everyone is in shock. The mothers had been waiting for their daughters to come home. Even when news of the accident reached us, we never believed that the victims were our own,” says Haseena.
All the deceased were from middle-class families, said Nasar.
“Irfana’s father works at a flour mill, Ridha’s father Abdul Rafeeq is an auto-rickshaw driver, Nidha’s father Abdul Saleem works in the Gulf while Aysha’s father Sharfuddin runs a grocery store at Panayampadam,” he added.