Mumbai:
A 28-year-old survivor of the April 4 building collapse at Lucky Compound, Mumbra is a worried man. Aamir Hussain Shaikh is still making rounds of hospitals in the city looking for his father who is missing. Shaikh has lost his wife, brother and son in the mishap.
Shaikh's father, Noor Mohammad Shaikh (65), who was present in the building when it collapsed, has not been seen ever since. Neither has his father's name featured in the list of survivors, nor in the list of dead. Shaikh's family lived on the first floor of the building. He has lost all his family members in the collapse, including his wife and son, and his brother's family that also lived in his flat.
"I have lost all my family members in the accident. My brother's 12-year-old daughter is the only one to have survived. We don't have a place to stay and I don't know where to keep her," said Shaikh. Besides having a flat on the first floor, Shaikh used to run a grocery shop in the building. On the ill-fated day, as the building began to crumble Shaikh ran out of the structure, but could not save his family.
"My father used to manage the shop while I was away. On the day of the accident I came to the shop and asked my father to go home and take a nap. A few seconds after my father left the shop, the building collapsed. I don't know where he was at the time of the accident," said Shaikh, who had purchased the flat from the builder three months ago. He struck a deal of Rs 9.5 lakh for the flat and had already paid the builder Rs 2 lakh. Shaikh says his purpose now is to hunt for his missing father and look after his brother's daughter.
"I have visited every hospital where victims had been admitted, but could not find my father. I recognised the dead bodies of the other members of my family immediately but my father was nowhere in sight. I am praying to God that he is alive," said Shaikh. Shaikh is currently living with his friend Irshad Qureshi in Mumbra. Qureshi said, "Any man who has lost his family in a building collapse would definitely be distraught. He also had a lot of valuables in his house and shop which are all lost now."