2007 Samjauta Express Blast , Pakistani Hindus victims shift to Delhi for cure , India

Source http://www.siasat.com
Monday,April 26,2010

New Delhi, April 26: The Capital has become the new home for two Pakistani Hindus whose lives went off track after the blast on the Samjhauta Express in 2007.

Wounded in the blast, Ramesh Kumar ( 42) and his nephew Ashok ( 30) have moved to Delhi along with their families.

The two, who hail from Sialkot in Pakistan, are seeking treatment in the Capital’s Safdarjung Hospital.

Ashok has been undergoing treatment for burns for the past one and a half years at the hospital’s burns, plastic and maxillofacial surgery department.

“ We were admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital after the Samjhauta blast. We were given first aid. Then I was sent to Pakistan in an unconscious state. When I regained consciousness, I realised I was in Lahore,” Ashok said.

For more than a year after the incident, Ashok approached government hospitals in Pakistan for treatment.

“ Some doctors and relatives suggested I move to India as the quality of medical facilities here is better,” he said. Ashok decided to return to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

“ In the past one year, the doctors here have performed two surgeries on my right hand. I can finally move it,” he said. The doctors may perform a third surgery, on his left hand, in October.

“ Ashok needs a graft and a complex surgery on his left hand to help it function normally,” said Dr Sujata Sarabhai, senior plastic surgeon at the Safdarjung Hospital.

Ashok has come across strangers who have donated money and food, and facilitated his treatment in the city. But life has not been easy. “ My siblings study in a school in Tughlaqabad while my mother stays at home. My father abandoned us after the tragedy,” he said.

Eking out a living is difficult for Ashok, who was a web designer in Sialkot, because his hands got burnt in the blast. “ I cannot work on a computer now,” he said.

Ramesh followed his nephew to Delhi six months ago.

He underwent a tissue expansion surgery at New Hospital, Lahore. “ But there was no streamlined treatment in Pakistan.

So I came here,” said Ramesh, who lives on the compensation given by the Indian government to the blast victims.

Both Ashok and Ramesh have acquired five- year visas from the Indian government for medical treatment.

---Agencies