Delhi riots: Outside GTB Hospital, grief turns to frustration as families wait for information

The authorities said one of the reasons for delay in post mortem is the lack of specialists along with Delhi Police’s delay in giving reports.

Md Ibrahim and Gulshan Khatoon, father and mother of Mubarak (35) who was killed during communal violence in northeast Delhi area outside the mortuary of GTB hospital in New Delhi on Friday. (Photo | Partveen Negi/EPS)

NEW DELHI: At Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in Dilshad Garden, the bodies of those who succumbed to injuries sustained during the violence that rocked northeast Delhi are been handed over to their families.

The communal violence has claimed 42 lives so far and injured over 300 others, according to officials. Hospital authorities say it will take five more days to complete the post mortem of all the deceased, with 20 bodies yet to be examined.

So far the autopsy of 18 bodies has been conducted. Nine bodies were handed over to families on Friday, many of whom have been waiting for over two days outside the mortuary.

Farha, waits with her five children outside the mortuary of GTB Hospital on Friday looking for her husband Dilshad who went missing on February 24. (Photo | Parveen Negi, EPS)

The authorities said one of the reasons for the delay in post mortem is the lack of specialists along with Delhi Police’s delay in giving reports. On Friday, the GTB mortuary was surrounded by families – some waiting to get bodies of their relatives and others hoping not to find their missing loved ones there.

“It has been four days now. We came here from Madhubani district in Bihar. The police are not cooperating with us. Our tears have dried up; we just want to take the body and go home for the funeral rituals,” said Mohammad Ibrahim, father of 35-year-old Mubarak Hussain who died during the violence.

Farha, is looking for her husband Sonu Dilshad, accompanied by her five children one of them hardly a few months old. Her face is pale and lips barely move as she speaks. One of Sonu’s relatives tells the tale of her suffering

“Others have been coming here for three days; she came today as she got tired of waiting at home. We hope to go home emptyhanded and not with Sonu’s body.”

Quresha Begum was inconsolable as tears kept rolling from her eyes. “He was right there, beside me on Wednesday and now he is gone,” she said.

On Wednesday evening, Irfan who runs a small shop near his house, had stepped out to buy milk. The violent mob attacked him, hitting his head with metal rods. Irfan was taken to Jag Parvesh Hospital from where he was referred to GTB Hospital where he breathed his last. Quresha remembered the last words of her son.

“Usne kaha tha Ammi hum abhi aenge...lekin nahi aaya (Irfan said I will be back shortly but he didn’t return)”