“Our heartbeat almost stopped,” said a Mumbai attack survivor who lost six of his kin in the terror strike, as the Paris carnage brought back haunting memories of horror, pain and fear to 26/11 victims.
Ten members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based terror outfit, had carried out a series of 12 coordinated attacks lasting four days across Mumbai in November 2008, killing 164 people and injuring over 300.
The deadly attacks in Paris on Friday night claimed by the dreaded Islamic State left at least 129 people dead and over 350 wounded.
39-year-old Shamim Shaikh, who lost six of his kin on the night of November 26, 2008, said the Paris attack has only brought back memories of fear and the pain that his otherfamily members had to go through.
“There was a strange atmosphere that night. We were to go to our native place then, but, as soon as we entered the station, we saw that people were running helter-skelter.
Till the time we understood what was happening, six persons from my family were already dead,” he said.“As soon as we heard that such an attack has happened in Paris, our heartbeat almost stopped,” he added.
“We get this feeling again and again that we should not live in big cities. It is better to live in our village, eat once a day, but at least live safely,” Mr Shaikh said.
He said that those spreading terror in the name of Islam are not really Muslims, because the religion stands for peace.
“Islam advocates peace. It never teaches us to be terrorists. “Such people have no relation to Islam except that they bear our names. A Muslim can never be a terrorist,” Mr Shaikh further added.
