Mumbai 1993 blasts: Time has passed, but the pain hasn’t

Plaza Cinema, Dadar, 1993

Exactly 30 years ago, on this day, a series of bomb blasts ripped through Mumbai, leaving 257 dead and more than 800 seriously injured. It was also the first time that Mumbai - then Bombay, witnessed a terror attack in the form of serial bomb blasts, changing the Mumbai Police's perception of terror forever. It was a watershed moment for the city, dwarfed only by the 26/11 terror attacks of 2008, which once again altered the perception of terror attacks for Mumbai. Three decades down the line, however, the survivors of the horrific attack still await the compensation that is owed to them.

On March 12, 1993, a total of 12 bombs exploded at key locations in Mumbai, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Air India building. Investigators would go on to unearth a deadly conspiracy that originated in a meeting held in Dubai shortly after the riots of 1992-93. The meeting was the outcome of Tehreek-e-Inteqam (movement for justice), a movement that was the crystallisation of the anger that resonated within the Muslim community in Asia in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was quick to capitalise on this anger and roped in wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who had fled to Pakistan by then, to provide logistical support for the blasts.

An armed policeman patrols the Bombay Stock Exchange building in south Mumbai on Saturday, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the 1993 serial bomb blasts, that left 257 dead and over 800 seriously injured. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Among the hundreds of victims who were injured on that fateful day, and still live with the pain of the tragedy, was Kirti Ajmera, who narrowly escaped death but not without heavy injuries. Ajmera was near the BSE when the bomb planted there went off and over the last 30 years, Ajmera has undergone no less than 40 surgeries. Compensation from the government, however, is yet to reach him, despite the fact that there is no door in the government that he hasn't knocked on by now.

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"The right side of my body still hurts. To this day, shards of glass emerge from my body. My right arm, which was hanging by a strip of tissue when the bomb exploded, would have surely fallen off had I not held it in place with my left hand. The right side of my face was also damaged and my inner ear was ruptured by glass shards," Ajmera told mid-day. Over the years, Ajmera has paid for his own surgeries, which have by no means been affordable. He has spent over Rs 40 lakh on surgeries till date.

"Now, if I see a small piece of glass coming out of my body, I just ask my wife Raksha to remove it using a pair of forceps," he said. Ajmera's daughter Ami said that as compared to the physical pain that she sees her father deal with on a daily basis, the government's apathy hurts more. "Immediately after the compensation was announced, my father started approaching government officials. He has gone to every department that he was directed to but to no avail," she said.

1993 blasts survivor Kirti Ajmera at his residence in Malad West. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Now 61, Ajmera recalled how his brother Vijay had approached a government agency to as about the compensation soon after the blasts. "An officer turned him away saying, ‘Jab aapka bhai mar jaayega tab aakar do lakh le jana. (Come and collect Rs 2 lakh after your brother dies)'. The statement was as shocking as it was unspeakable," Ajmera said. His plight is shared by scores of others, including Tushar Deshmukh, a Dadar resident who was 13 years old when he lost his mother to the blasts. She was aboard a bus when the bomb at the Century Bazaar went off and Deshmukh carries the scars of his loss to this day.

"It's been 30 years but the masterminds have yet not been brought back to India due to sheer lack of political will. The bombings ruined me and I have struggled a lot just to live," said Deshmukh, who stayed in a college hostel for nearly two years, when his father remarried shortly after the blasts. He added, "My mother's face was only partly recognisable when her body was recovered. One hand and one leg were missing when they brought her body home for the final respects. I was too young to be allowed to look at her in that condition."

Tushar Deshmukh, who lost his mother in the blasts, next to her photograph in his Dadar residence. Pic/Shadab Khan

Apart from Kaskar, Mushtaq alias Tiger Memon, a Mahim resident who used to handle Kaskar's smuggling rackets in Mumbai, is also one of the top wanted accused in the case. Memon and his aide Javed Patel alias Javed Chikna are alleged to have used Dawood's smuggling routes to bring in RDX, hand grenades and AK 47 assault rifles into Maharashtra by sea, which were later driven into Mumbai. The conspirators also recruited over 100 young men, who were trained in the use of arms and explosives. They were then tasked with assembling the bombs and planting them all over the city.