Seriously injured passengers shifted to city hospitals

Twenty-two-year-old Afreen Shaikh’s family had been planning for her marriage next year, but they are now preparing for her funeral. Nidhi Varma reports.

Twenty-two-year-old Afreen Shaikh’s family had been planning for her marriage next year, but they are now preparing for her funeral.

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Three members of the Shaikh family – Afreen, her mother Sitara and her nephew Zaid – were returning to their home in Wadala after attending a wedding in Ahmedabad in the ill-fated bus.

Sitara, 52, has suffered serious injuries and has been brought to Bhagwati hospital, Borivli, along with eight other passengers.

Eight-year-old Zaid is also grievously injured and was semi-conscious when the police spoke to him to get some information about his family.

“Zaid remembered his father’s phone number and gave it to the policemen and they got in touch with us. We learnt that Afreen is dead and Sitara was yet to be traced then so while Zaid’s father left for the accident spot, some of us came to the hospital,” said Rehan Shaikh, Sitara’s nephew who was at Bhagwati hospital.

Another injured victim, Nagendra Harijan, 24, woke up in the hospital bed with 23 stitches on his head.

“I have no clue how our bus met with the accident and how I reached the hospital. I am lucky to have lived,” said Harijan, who along with five other labourers had gone to Ahmedabad to work at a construction site.

Pramod Yadav, 28, the cleaner of the tanker that collided with the bus, and another passenger, Ashish Oswal, are in a critical condition and had been admitted to the trauma intensive care unit of the hospital. Hospital authorities said that Oswal was later shifted to KEM.