Morbi Mishap: Bride-To-Be Noorja's 8 Family Members Buried on Her Engagement Day

Eighteen-year-old Noorja Majothi was all set for her engagement ceremony scheduled for Monday, 31 October, in Morbi's Kantipur locality — tents had been erected in the backyard of her house, her outfit was stitched and ready, family members from other cities had arrived already. The house was bustling with preparations for the ceremony a day before.

Never had she imagined that one of the of the happiest days of her life would take a turn for the worse.

On Sunday, 30 October, as Noorja's hands were being adorned with henna around 5:00 pm, her brother Juma Majothi (31), his wife Reshmaben (22), and their two kids Mahinoor (7), and Faizan (5) accompanied other visiting family members — cousin Halimaben (39), her husband Hussain (45), their two children Hanif (20) and Asad (6), and another niece Shaheena Adam Panka (15) — to visit the hanging bridge on the Machchhu river.

But out of the nine people who left the house that evening, only one returned.

"While henna was being applied on my hands, my little niece (Mahinoor) came to me and asked for a chocolate. I told her I will get it for her once my hands are free, I promised her I would. While leaving, she again made me promise her that once she is back from the bridge, I would get her a chocolate. That was the last I spoke to her," said Noorja.

A Celebration Turned Into a Mourning

Noorja's father Sajan Majothi (62) sat next to four janazahs (funeral coffins) in the backyard of Juma's house where the guests for the engagement were supposed to be seated. Sajan said that he had his reservations about family members going to the bridge, but "bacchon ko ghumne jaana tha (the children wanted to go for an outing)," he said.

Narrating their struggle of finding family members, Sajan said that it took them hours of rigorous search to locate everybody.

"When we reached the hospital, there was my son Juma's body, Hussain's body, and my granddaughter's (Mahinoor) body. It took us four-five hours to find all of them," Sajan said.

"The doctor told us that the water is polluted with chemicals," he added.

"We erected tents for a celebration, but they turned into tents of mourning," a teary-eyed Sajan said.

The Only One Who Survived

Noorja's cousin Halimaben Hussain (39) was the only one who survived out of the group of nine family members that went to the bridge. Even though she went with them, she did not go on the bridge as she "gets dizzy at heights," Sajan said. 

However, Halimaben saw her husband Hussain and two children Hanif (20) and Asad (6) die before her eyes.

"Hussain's wife (Halimaben) immediately boarded an auto-rickshaw and came home crying. "I have lost everything, I lost everything..." she shouted unconsolably," Sajan narrated.

Unable to process the grief staying in Morbi, Halimaben returned to her in-laws' house in Kutch the next day.

Adam Panka (38), another cousin of Noorja had come to attend the ceremony with his daughter Shaheena (15). She also went to the bridge with the others, but could no survive the tragedy.

'Will To Fight is Twice As Strong'

Juma, a labourer by profession, had remarried at the beginning of this year after he separated from his first wife.

Noorja remembers her bond with Juma "like any other beautiful brother-sister relationship." "He never left any of my wishes unfulfilled, in fact he has given us more than what we have asked for," she said.

However, the family now demands justice, saying that no amount of monetary compensation will make up for their loss.

While Sajan called it "murder", Ibrahim (24), another sibling of Juma raised several questions against the claims being made by authorities and has pledged to fight any legal battle needed to punish those responsible for the mishap.

"The municipality people say that no permission was taken from them before reopening the bridge. How did they not know? What were they doing? The bridge was being used for at least four days before the tragedy. They knew that it had been reopened but they did not do anything," Ibrahim said.

Demanding resignations of municipal officers, Ibrahim said: "All those being brought at the hospital before us were being brought dead. It was a very difficult to watch. What did the authorities lose? I lost my brother, my nephew, my niece, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, one sister has been widowed... we lost everything."

"We picked up eight bodies from our house today. Can you imagine how strong our will is? Our will to fight for justice is twice as strong. We will fight against those responsible at every possible level," he added.

The four members of Juma's family had a house to themselves, in the Kantipur area, with Sajan's other children living in the same locality with their own families. Juma's house will now be locked, Sajan said, as nobody is left to reside in it.