A 28-year-old student from Hyderabad was killed in a road accident in the US state of Massachusetts Wednesday morning when his car was hit by a truck after he failed to hit the brakes at an intersection.
The deceased, Mohammed Wajid, had moved to the US four years ago for higher studies and was reportedly working part-time in Chicago to support himself.
According to reports, Wajid’s car was hit by the truck in Plymouth County in northwest Iowa, about 500 km away from Chicago. The reports said he was taken to a hospital where he died. “Wajid’s semi struck the rear of the grain trailer, splitting in two and came to a rest on both sides of the road. The frame of Wajid’s semi ended up in one ditch while his cab was in another,” said a local report.
His family said Wajid’s parents Muhammed Ejaz and Shamim Begum and brother Md Javed, who live in M S Maqta of Hyderabad’s Khairatabad, left for the US after receiving the news. “We do not know what has happened. That’s why Wajid’s parents have gone to the US without wasting time. His father has decided to finish formalities and perform final rites in the US itself as it might take a lot of time and effort to bring back the body here,” his cousin Mustafa Ali told indianexpress.com Thursday.
Wajid was about to come back in six months after his younger brother, who is also in Chicago, completed his Master’s, said a family member. After finishing his BCom, Wajid completed a Masters (MSIT) from Trine University in Chicago.
“The last time he visited Hyderabad a year ago, he had told me that it would be his last visit to the US. He said he wanted to settle down in Hyderabad once and forever. The parents were looking for a suitable match for him and a grand wedding was on the cards,” Majeed, another cousin, told indianexpress.com.
He said Wajid took his parents to perform Umrah in Saudi Arabia the last time he visited Hyderabad. “He was a gem of a person. Everyone loved him. He would play cricket with us every Sunday without fail… Right from his student days, he was interested in politics and always helped people get access to government welfare schemes,” said Majeed.
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According to cousins and neighbours, Wajid was an active social worker and political activist of the Congress party. He had been with the party for a decade and quickly rose in ranks to become the area’s youth congress president and later a member of the party’s NRI minority cell, they said. “He was a highly talented orator and could communicate equally well in Urdu, English or Telugu. He was always working for the people and helping the underprivileged and the poor,” said Ali, who recalled how Wajid once helped him with an issue relating to his college fee.
For his community involvement, Wajid was recognised as a Pandemic Warrior and felicitated at a public event in 2021. “I don’t have to be famous. I just have to make my mother and father proud of me,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
“In a very short period, he got access and acquainted with Revanth Reddy (the chief minister) and met with the CM in Chicago last year. His Instagram page is full of photos and videos of him with Revanth Reddy, who was his biggest inspiration,” said Md Faisal, another cousin.
