‘It was the worst scene I had ever seen’
Twenty people were killed and 84 injured in the Air India blast. Ingle considers himself lucky to escape with minor injuries and deafness for 15 days, Jyoti Shelar tells more.
Harishankar Ingle(37) was busy mending shoes on the footpath when a bomb exploded a few feet away in the Air-India building almost 14 years ago.
“Everybody ran helter-skelter. I didn’t know where to go, but I followed the crowd,” said the clobber.
Twenty people were killed and 84 injured in the Air India blast. Ingle considers himself lucky to escape with minor injuries and deafness for 15 days. “But, it affected me mentally,” he said.
Farooq Pawale, who had planted the bomb in the building, was given death sentence on Wednesday. “The accused should have been hanged in public 14 years ago,” said Ingle, a resident of Sion Koliwada.
“It was the worst scene I had ever seen. I came to the spot after a few minutes and helped remove the injured from the debris and put them in taxis,” said Ingle. “The most horrifying sight was when I saw a leg of one of the injured fall in front of me.”
Ingle said the punishment should be such so that it teaches a lesson to the terrorists.
The clobber was back in his stall on the footpath that he has been running since 1986.
He keeps thanking god for saving him. “After witnessing the pain which many underwent, I think the sentencing took very long,” he says as goes back to mending a broken shoe.