Faculty members of Amrutavahini College of Engineering, Sangamner, in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra said that almost 11 years after their seven students were killed and 15 were injured in the blast that ripped though Lumbini Park on August 25, 2007, they finally got justice.
After learning about the verdict pronounced by a special court in Hyderabad on Tuesday, principal of the college M.A. Venkatesh told The Hindu that though the loss of their ‘bright’ students cannot be compensated, they got some relief through the verdict. On the fateful rainy day, the lives of five of their college students, sitting in the central row of the laserium, were snuffed out in the blast. Two succumbed to injuries while being shifted to hospital and more than 15 students suffered injuries.
They had come to Hyderabad on an industrial tour to the DRDO, a day before the bomb blasts rocked the State capital 11 years ago. As permission to the tour was not accorded, all the 45 students of second-year electronic engineering and four faculty members of the college visited Snow World, Salarjung Museum and Golconda Fort and in the evening came to Lumbini Park around 6.30 p.m. to watch a laser show.
Speaking to The Hindu, Vikas Marathe, one of the faculty members who led the tour said that he has not forgotten any of the names or faces of the students that became statistics in the blast. Twelve were killed and 21 injured in the blast at Lumbini Park blast.
Recalling the day when police asked Mr. Marathe to identify Anik Shafique Sayeed in Mumbai, he said that the interrogation of Anik was carried out in his presence in a vehicle while he was being shifted to Hyderabad from Mumbai Central Prison. “Listening to him, I realised that he had no repentance for his action, which claimed the lives of several innocents,” he said.
During their journey from Mumbai to Panvel, they listened to his confession. “Anik told the police that they planned to plant a bomb in a boat at Hussainsagar. But he came to Lumbini Park and placed the explosive in the central row,” he said, quoting the convict .