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Returning home is last thing on riot traumatized Azra's mind

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Sep 17 2013 | 8:36 PM IST
She saw her grandma, uncle and cousin sister being killed on September 8 and even today those horrifying images tear through her tender mind as she sleeps and wakes up screaming "don't kill them, don't kill them".
Ten-year-old Azra Qureshi, a victim of Muzaffarnagar riots, has not slept ever since she was admitted in the Trauma Centre of the AIIMS here, says her father Aas Mohd who managed to escape the violence and now sits beside his daughter hoping she recovers and returns home.
But home, says Aas, is the last thing on Azra's mind. She doesn't want to go back to her village Baori in Shamli district, located 23 kilometers from Muzaffarnagar town.
Aas Mohammad says Azra, with bandages on her arm and abdomen, is not able to sleep at night.
"She jumps out of her sleep shouting 'mat maro, mar maro (don't kill, don't kill). The sight of her grand mother, cousin sister and uncle being killed flashes before her eyes. She is in shock and doesn't want to go back to Baori," says the father, a scrap dealer.
Azra is being treated for severe wounds that she received in her hands and abdomen.

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Mohammad said that during the riots he was in Delhi for business and got to meet his family only after four days.
"I got to know that she is being treated at the Muzaffarnagar district hospital. My five-year-old daughter Aqsa and my wife Herunisa had also received injuries on their face by bullet shrapnels. They are at home now. We live in fear every moment now," he said.
Azra, who had undergone treatment at the district hospital, was shifted to AIIMS on September 13.
She underwent a debridement and external fixature operation today. A vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) device has been applied in her hand to heal the wounds.
Doctors are planning to stich the wounds in her abdomen after a week.
On September 8 afternoon, a mob armed with weapons like swords, sickles and guns had started attacking villagers. Some from the mob slashed her stomach with a sickle before slicing off flesh from her right wrist, Azra's maternal grandmother said.

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First Published: Sep 17 2013 | 8:36 PM IST

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