He was there to save lives. But when the bomb went off at the Civil Hospital this evening, it killed Dr Prerak Shah (32) and his wife, 28-year-old Kinjal, and their unborn child of three months.

For the first time, hospitals, where the dead and the injured were being rushed after the blasts, became the targets of terror attack as well. In fact, of the 29 reported dead until midnight tonight, 10, including two doctors, were killed in a blast in the Trauma Centre at the Meghaninagar Civil Hospital in Shahibaug and four lost their lives near the L G Hospital, about 7 km away. More than 40 were injured in each of these blasts.

The fact that these two explosions took place in or near hospitals at 7.45 pm — almost an hour after the first blast — and after at least five bombs had gone off across the city points to a sinister design to target the injured and their relatives and derail relief and rescue, said a senior police officer.

“Never before have we seen such a plot,” said the officer, “obviously the terrorists’ main objective was to strike the defenceless and deepen the fear.”

Incidentally, targeting hospitals after striking in other parts of the city finds mention as part of a terrorist’s plot in the Hindi film Contract, recently released by Ram Gopal Verma.

“A bomb went off right behind my brother Sanjay’s hand cart at Hatkeshwar at 6.30, which seriously injured him” said Nirmala Paswan a women in her early 30s. “While I rushed to see him at L G Hospital, a bomb went off here too and I was injured in the stampede that followed,” she said.

... contd.