A day after the tragic incident of bridge collapse occurred at Morbi in Gujarat, the city dealt with a lot of disturbance as cries of people who lost their loved ones, and the sound of ambulance sirens echoed in the city. Around 135 people including several belonging to the Muslim community from the city were reported dead after the incident.
According to a report by Navbharat Times, the bodies of many people who lost their lives in the incident were taken to one of the largest graveyards in the city for cremation. Ghafoor Pastiwala who is the caretaker of one of the largest Islamic cemeteries in the city revealed that the workers at the cemetery had to dig around 40 graves in the graveyard and that around 20 Muslims, including 8 children were buried in 12 hours. Pastiwala stated that he had never dug so many graves at once and that there were so many dead bodies that their families had to queue up to bury them.
Pointing at a row of four graves in the cemetery, Pastiwala said that they belonged to the Sumara family, who lost seven members in the tragedy. “Seven people include 4 children and 3 women. Two women and two children have been buried at the Morbi graveyard, while the bodies of a woman and her two children have been sent for last rites to her husband’s home in Jamnagar”, he said.
He also said that the bodies of Aamir Rafiq Khalifa (25) and Taufiq Altaf Ajmeri (18) who were residents of Morbi were also buried in the graveyard. Reports mention that the duo had gone to enjoy the evening at the bridge but never returned. Aamir’s family expressed grief as they had lost Aamir who was the only son in the family. Taufiq’s cousin Maqbool who was also on the bridge when the incident happened expressed grief and said that he survived the incident but could not save Taufiq.
Besides this, two more families who stay in the same locality as that of Aamir and Taufiq are mourning over the demise of two cousins named Vijay Ganpatbhai Rathod (19) and Jagdish Mansukhbhai Rathod (19). The last rites of the brothers were performed at the cremation ground located near Dholeshwar Mahadev temple in Morbi.
In another dreadful incident, Suresh Parmar had to witness the cremation process of his brother named Mahesh. “My cousin Mahesh had gone out to buy Chinese food. From there he went for a walk on the bridge and never returned”, said Suresh Parmar. Also, three young boys from the Muchadia family which resides in a small town of Gujarat were cremated on October 31. Notably, around 50 Hindu cremations were held on Monday, and 37 Muslim funerals were being carried out at the only Islamic cemetery in the district. However, 20 Muslims including 8 children were buried in 12 hours.
On Monday, hours after the suspension bridge over the Machchhu River in Morbi, Gujarat, collapsed claiming around 135 lives and injuring several other persons, CCTV footage emerged showing that a few people were continuously shaking the bridge, moments before the unfortunate tragedy. The bridge collapsed at around 6:30 pm when around 400 people were on the bridge.
The bridge was closed for operational use about 7 months ago. A private company by the name of Oreva Group (Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited) was given the contract in March of this year to renovate and maintain the said bridge. The suspension bridge, which is also known as the jhoolta pool, was reopened on the occasion of Gujarati New Year Day on October 26 this year after the completion of the renovation task of the bridge.
However, the Morbi Municipality said that the private firm threw open the bridge to the public without obtaining a fitness certificate from the Municipality. The 150-year-old bridge located 300 km from Vadodara could take the weight of only about 125 people but there were around 400 people on the bridge when the incident happened, as per reports. The death toll in the Morbi bridge disaster has risen to around 135 while a total of 180 were successfully rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams.
The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for each of those killed in the accident and Rs 50,000 for those injured. The Prime Minister also has announced monetary assistance of Rs. 2 lakh for each of the victims’ families.
