All he said was 'Papa guzar gaye'

"My cousin Amanpreet is inside. We will not move till he comes out,” Ravinder Singh, one of the four men, blurted out. “I was shown his face from a distance.”

They are refusing to believe that 21-year old Amanpreet, pursuing his internship at the Delhi High Court died within minutes of being brought to the hospital at around 11 a.m. in a grievously injured state.

"It is not possible … Aman was strong and gutsy, a police official told us he was breathing heavily when he was brought to RML,” Ravinder told IANS.

The six-foot tall law student from Panjab University had gone to the high court early at 9 a.m., despite strong opposition from his mother who wanted him to stay home.

"He had slept late last night. Said he has an important case to observe in the court... The first one in our family to have entered such a daring profession,” Ravinder's voice choked as he related snippets from his cousin's life.

Aman's distraught mother is in shock, his father is still waiting for a relative to return from the US after which the body will be taken home.

Several other mutilated and disfigured bodies, soaked in pools of blood lay at the trauma centre of the hospital. Agitated and anxious families were running around for some piece of information that they could latch on to. Some of them were lawyers.

The hospital pressed all its emergency services into action when the blast victims were brought to the hospital since 11 a.m.

Meerut-based Nizamuddin's family was planning celebrations at their Daryaganj residence as the family was expected to win a long drawn legal battle related to family feud in the high court. Nizamuddin, 87, was brought dead to the hospital, doctors told his daughter Shammo.  

"He had come with his grandson Shahnawaz. We thought this would be our second Eid,” Shammo, who sat waiting outside the hospital's trauma centre with her two sisters, said.  

Mehtab Singh Dabas, 57, was also among the victims. His lawyer Sanjeev Beniwal was searching for his client in the bustle of the hospital. Dabas, a native of Ghewra village in west Delhi's Nangloi, was getting his visitor's pass made at Gate no.5 while Beniwal waited for him inside the court premises.        

"I heard a huge explosion. There was darkness all over. When I called Mehtab, his son answered the call and all he said was 'Papa guzar gaye (father has passed away',” Beniwal told IANS. "For around five minutes after the blast, it was like deafness. Glass pieces lay shattered, mutilated bodies were lying around, bags strewn, everything helter-skelter,” Beniwal recalled.  

By 3 p.m., the hospital had eleven dead and 68 injured. The injuries were mainly in the lower limbs due to shrapnel and splinter injuries. "Some of the patients are still being operated upon. There are maximum number of leg and head injuries. Two are serious in the neurosciences ward,” a senior doctor from the hospital said on condition of anonymity.

Three injured have been admitted to Safdarjung hospital, two in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).