Family refuses to claim body of Patna terror suspect

Three days after Ainul Ansari alias Tarique, a suspect in the serial bomb blasts in the Bihar capital, died at a hospital here due to injuries to his brain, his family has refused to claim the body for last rites, police said Sunday.

"No one from his family has turned up so far to claim his body," Patna Superintendent of Police (Railway) Upendra Kumar Singh said.

Six people were killed and nearly 100 injured in seven bomb blasts in Patna Oct 27.

Six of the seven blasts took place on Oct 27 at Patna's Gandhi Maidan before Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was to address a rally. The seventh explosion was at the Patna railway station.

Ainul was seriously injured in the bomb explosion at the railway station and he died Friday at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here due to his injuries.

Ainul's body is kept at the mortuary of the Patna Medical College and Hospital here.

"The Government Railway Police officials have been deployed outside the mortuary for security reason," a police official said.

Ainul's 70-year-old father Ataullah Ansari, a resident of Dhurva in Ranchi, Jharkhand, had publicly declared last Friday not to take custody of his body.

"After I heard that he was involved in terror act and seriously injured, I announced that he was not my son... where is the question of claiming his body," he had then said.

According to him, there is no place of terrorism in Islam.

"Ainul was not my son as he violated the rules of Islam," said Ataullah.

Singh said that railway police, starting Friday, will keep the body for 72 hours in the mortuary before his last rites are performed as per his religious faith.

"If any one from his family turns up Sunday, we will hand over the body. In case no one claims his body, last rites would be performed Monday as per religious rituals by a Muslim organization, known for burial of unclaimed bodies here," Singh said.

Ainul's postmortem examination was conducted by a medical board and videographed.

Arun Kumar, director of IGIMS where Ainul was admitted with splinter injuries to his brain, said that after battling for life for over five days, he succumbed to serious injuries.

According to police officials, Ainul was admitted to the hospital here as he was found crying in pain near the railway station toilet after the bomb exploded even as he was trying to fix it or fit a timer.

Arun Kumar said that before his identity was disclosed by the police, he was believed to be a victim.