[Aijaz Ansari (R) is perhaps the only journalist who is covering 1993 Mumbai Serial Blasts Case since last 25 years.]
Whenever, he picked up the receiver, fellow-journalists would want to know what happened in the TADA court, to be specific the March 12, 1993 serial blasts case.
Aijaz would narrate what happened soon after he finished his takes.
Those were the days of tring-tring phones and Aijaz would be seen in his traditional safari suit, but now in shirts and trousers with two cellphones. The scooter has been his constant companion.
For Aijaz Ahmed Ansari, currently associated as a senior correspondent with news agency United News of India and UNI Urdu Service, it has been 25 years that he had been covering the case.
“They are all colleagues…. We journalists are a small community, we all know each other, cutting across age groups,” Aijaz Ansari, who had also been the secretary of the Mumbai Press Club, said while talking to ummid.com.
Aijaz had extensively covered December 1992-January 1993 communal riots in Mumbai post December 06, 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, March 12, 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai and case hearings in TADA Court, and also Shrikrishna Commission which probed the riots and blasts.
“Three decades in journalism is a pretty long innings and in these years I had covered almost everything…. Crime, courts, politics, legislature… But for me, court reporting had been my forte and expertise,” he said humbly during a gathering of select journalists friends who felicitated him recently.
What is interesting about Aijaz is that he is well versed in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati languages, and makes friendship fast – and maintains that.
Whether it is March12, 1993 serial blasts case, August 25, 2004 twin blasts at Gateway of India and Pydhonie, 7/11 train blasts case or 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in which Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, stood as an accused - Aijaz could be seen covering all.
As far as the 1993 serial blasts are concerned, Aijaz is a walking-talking encyclopedia.
“I still remember the first day, when one of the accused whose scooter was used was produced before the court,” he said.
When the case as commuted to the TADA court, Aijaz bhai, as he is popularly known, says, the hearing in the case was inside Arthur Road prison.
“We were issued special passes,” he said, adding that during the initial days of the case, once he saw Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt breaking down.
“When the two approvers narrated the sequence of events, it was one of the most interesting phases of the case…. Between the cases, I had to come out of the court, go to the nearest public booth, and dial office, give the copy,” he said.
The serial blasts case is often known as the Bombay Blasts Case (BBC) and it is known as BBC-I and BBC-II.
“I have covered both of them,” he said.
For him, friendship matters most – whether it is a health issue or personal problem of a friend, he is the first. Though at times, because of his hundreds of commitments, he may be late he never missed any date.
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