People pay tributes to Lumbini Park- Gokul Chat blasts victims

Hyderabad: The city on Wednesday paid its homage to the victims of the twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park which claimed the lives of 42 people all in all, on the 14th anniversary of the event.

Two blasts occurred at the famous Gokul Chat eatery at Koti and at the laser show auditorium at Lumbini Park at 7:45 pm on August 25, 2007. While 32 people died at Gokul Chat, ten persons died at Lumbini Park. More than 50 were injured in the two blasts and much later an unexploded bomb was discovered by Dilsukhnagar police.

The Chaat Bandar was shut down in memory of those killed in the twin blasts. Syed Raheem lost an eye in the blast and has since been coping with different health ailments. He was among the others paying tribute.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Raheem, who also is a member of the Terrorist Bomb Blast Victims association remarked that even keeping the perpetrators of the blast alive was a way of denying justice to the victims and their families. “The government should hang them”, he remarked.

A special court in 2018 found two of the seven men accused of the blasts, Anique Syed Akbar and Ismail Choudhary guilty and acquitted two others while the remaining three including the mastermind Riyaz Bhatkal were absconding.