JEDDAH, 8 December 2004 — It was too sudden and too brutal a shock for the Indian woman whose young husband was killed in Monday’s attack on the US Consulate.
Too traumatized for emotions, Simeen Basheer was in a state of total numbness yesterday, neither crying nor talking nor doing anything at all. Muhammad Basheeruddin, 28, was such a loving husband ever since they married four months ago.
“She was only married recently and was very happy to join Basheer here. She had a lot of dreams but she did not know her happiness was not destined to last long,” one of her relatives told Arab News.
The couple’s relatives and friends are making a beeline to their Anakesh flat to offer condolences.
A resident of Surya Nagar Colony of Hyderabad, Basheer was killed in the shootout in the US Consulate. Two other Indians — Pedro Gonzales and Richard Simon — also sustained injuries in the incident and are recovering in hospital.
Basheer had joined the US Consulate’s procurement department only 18 months ago. He was married in August and his wife joined him in Jeddah just two months ago.
Basheer’s father Muhammad Rahimuddin and his mother are coming to Jeddah tomorrow. His sister and brother-in-law are also arriving from Muscat, said Muhammad Abdul Razzak Aamir, Basheer’s elder brother.
The burial will take place in Jeddah.
Aamir, a senior employee of a local travel agency, was unable to hide his anguish. However, he described how he had to run from one hospital to another looking for his brother. Nobody was neither confirming nor denying that Basheer had fallen to the terrorists’ bullets.
He was on the list of casualties but his nationality was erroneously mentioned as Pakistani. “This had given us the hope and courage to search for him first among the injured. But he was not lucky enough to survive,” Aamir said.
