‘MEMORIES OF OUR DEAD NEIGHBOURS STILL HAUNT US’

That night, Abdul Salim Shaikh was sitting outside his house in south Mumbai’s Mazgaon along with his wife, Awah, and son, Sohail, when he saw a taxi pull up.

His neighbour, Zarina, and her daughter walked out of the car, requesting Shaikh for some change to pay the driver.

Shaikh did not have the money, but he asked the driver to park the vehicle outside the neighbour’s house and not his.

“After the driver got his money, he started his vehicle and began reversing it. The minute the car moved, a loud explosion threw us off our feet,” said Shaikh, adding that the roof of his house collapsed.

“The blast in the taxi was so powerful that the vehicle was flung in the air and its parts flew in different directions.”

The driver and the neighbours died in the blast while 19 others, including Shaikh and his family members, were severely injured.

“Three pieces of metal pierced my husband’s head, leg and back. My son was hit by shrapnel on his head and a metal rod entered my arm,” said Awah.

Two of the terrorists, Abu Shoaib and Abu Umer, had hired the cab after entering Mumbai to reach Cafe Leopold and Taj Mahal hotel.

Before they got off, they had strapped a bomb below the car’s front seat.

Shaikh, who’s a cook, and his family were treated for a month at a government hospital. “It has been seven years but the pain never seems to die down,” Shaikh said.

“The memories of our dead neighbours still haunt us. Whenever we go out as a family, my heart starts racing and I hold onto my son every time we see an abandoned bag.”