Batala Blast: How This 9-Month-Old Miraculously Survived

GURDASPUR, Punjab On the morning of September 4, the town of Batala was all decked up to celebrate Babe da vyah, the marriage anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, who married Mata Sulakhni in 1487.

That afternoon, over 2,00,000 devotees had streamed into Batala to pay obeisance at the historic Sikh temple in the city and were having langar, or community kitchen, laid out in hundreds of stalls near the historic Gurudwara that serves a fulcrum of the local community.

At about 3:45 pm, nine-month-old Garvit Bawa and his grandmother Bimla Rani were amongst the crush of visitors returning from the Gurudwara.

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As she neared her house in Guru Ram Das colony, Bimla Rani stopped to catch up with a neighbour; Garvita tying a saffron cloth covering his tiny head, sat happily in her lap with a toy in his hand. Suddenly, a massive explosion ripped through the neighbourhood, flattening everything in its path.

The shockwaves from the blast which was traced to an accident at an unregistered firecracker factory running illegally out of a residential area smashed the window panes of nearby homes and vehicles and killed at least 23 people and injured at least 40 more .

But nine-month-old Garvit had a miraculous escape.

I was bathing at the time of the explosion, and rushed to the spot immediately as I had heard them speaking to our neighbour, Garvits mother, Madhu Bawa, told HuffPost India. There was so much smoke and fire in the building that it almost became difficult to touch the rubble. I was not able to open my eyes and started crying. I began to shout their names.

A frantic 10 minutes later, Madhu spotted Garvit sitting amidst a pile of rubble even as a fire raged around him. His grandmother Bimla Devi was tragically killed by the blast.

Garvits uncle, Rajinder Singh, said the firecracker factory had been illegally operating for over 30 years, but the local authorities turned a blind eye to their complaints. The factory was flattened by the blast, and police authorities said at least 14 of the 23 dead included the factory owners and their immediate families who lived in one part of the premises.

We have been complaining against the factory from the last many years but no one paid any heed. A similar incident also occurred last year in the same factory where two of the workers died but even then the business kept on running as usual, said Rajinder Singh. Unfortunately it only stopped with the death of seven members of the factory owners including his only son.

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