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Dhoni dhamak: Celebration turns tragic, five dead

FIVE PERSONS were killed when two boys, celebrating the fireworks of Mahendra Singh Doni at the Faisalabad Test, burst crackers outside a shop stashed with firecrackers, setting up a chain reaction, in Auraiya on Tuesday morning.

Published on: Jan 25, 2006, 24:30:00 IST
None | By , Kanpur
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FIVE PERSONS were killed when two boys, celebrating the fireworks of Mahendra Singh Doni at the Faisalabad Test, burst crackers outside a shop stashed with firecrackers, setting up a chain reaction, in Auraiya on Tuesday morning.

HT Image
HT Image

The teenaged boys, responsible for the massive explosion, also died in the mishap that rocked Airwa Katra, some 70 km from Auraiya. The victims have been identified as Samad Khan alias Bhindi (60), Avnish Thakur (16), Ranjeet Teli (17), Mohd Suleiman (60) and Ratiram Jatav. All of them were residents of Airwa Katra.

On receiving information, senior police and administrative officials rushed to the site of the tragedy. Additional SP (Auraiya) SN Bharadwaj said the district administration would help the kin of victims to get financial assistance from the Chief Minister’s discretionary fund. “They all were very poor. Three of the victims were sole bread winners of their families,” Bharadwaj told HT.

According to reports, the shop belonged to Samad Khan and he was catching up the latest in the Indo-Pak match along with Suleiman. Around 10.30 am they were joined first by Ratiram and then students Avnish and Ranjeet. Everyone broke into jubilation as Dhoni continued with his exploits.

Avnish instantly bought bombs and set them afire barely a foot or two from the shop. Sparks from the explosion landed inside the shops and ignited the crackers stockpiled there.

Eyewitnesses told the police that there was massive explosion and they saw bodies going up in air. The explosion was so severe that it ripped apart the bodies, which according to police were beyond recognition. Family members of the victims identified the bodies.

The police said it could have been a bigger tragedy as the shop was located in a highly congested locality.

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