India
Tushar was thirteen when his mother died in the 1993 Bomb blsats.
Updated : Jul 28, 2015, 10:44 PM IST
A child of thirteen, lost his mother, one of the over 250 persons who died in 1993 Bomb Blasts in Mumbai. Then 34-year-old Priti Deshmukh, was reduced to pieces as the bomb went off in a taxi, ahead of Bus number 85, her regular commute from Dadar to Mahalaxmi and back. Tushar Deshmukh (36) remembers his late mother in the midst of the argument that has erupted in media over the controversy, whether one of the masterminds of the blasts, Yakub Memon should be put to gallows or not. “Not only Yakub, but the persons who have been proven to orchestrate the blasts, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, should have been hanged long back. Even after eighteen years, Ibrahim stays beyond India's reach,” said Tushar.
Tushar shares a contrary opinion to that of late former Research and Analysis Wing senior official B Raman, who stated in 2007 that it should be remembered that Yakub co-operated with the intelligence agencies, before giving him a death penalty.
“It is a known fact that the conspirators of the blasts held meeting at Yakub's house in Mahim, for days before the attacks. Those persons who entered and exited his home, those who met him, have been identified by the locals. Even if he co-operated in the investigations, does not nullify the pain and grief that the victims and their families have gone through. For eighteen years, we waited for a headway in the case, but there was no breakthrough. However, the buck should not stop at Yakub's hanging,” said Tushar. “It is said that Yakub brought along two bag loads of evidence which support nailing the involvement of ISI, Dawood Ibrahim and others in the case. What this evidence is, has never been brought out in public. The victims of the blast are very intrigued.”
On the fateful day of March 12, 1993, Priti saw Tushar off to school. Tushar returned back from school awaiting his mother to come back. “All I got to see at the end was a white shroud flooded with blood. For there was nothing left of my dead mother, I was kept away from her remains and was not allowed to see them,” he said. “It is a failure on the part of the Indian government that the masterminds have not been transported back to India. How many more years does the state want?”