Hyderabad: Just days before two high-intensity blasts rocked Dilsukhnagar, traffic police had begun a drive to clear footpath encroachments near the busy bus station. What seemed like routine harassment to street hawkers at the time turned out to be a lifesaving intervention. On Tuesday, the hawkers thanked the cops for saving their lives.
“Initially, we thought the cops were just pushing us around,” said Mallikarjuna Naruna, a cap seller. “But now, I thank them every single day. If we hadn’t been cleared out, many of us wouldn’t be alive.”
Mallikarjuna was among nearly 20 hawkers who operated along a 100-metre stretch near the 107 bus stop towards Malakpet, at Dilsukhnagar. On the day of the blasts, only a couple of them remained. “I packed up by 3 pm and left. Later that night, we heard about the explosion. The spot where I usually sell caps was hit,” he said.
Venugopal Surivi, who sold curtains, had just relocated his cart to a building cellar due to the police crackdown. “I heard the deafening blast and saw people collapsing right in front of me. I lost my hearing for nearly three months,” he recalled. “The bomb went off exactly where my cart would’ve been.”
Another hawker, who sold toys from a pushcart, said the eviction came suddenly. “The entire stretch was cleared within days. I shifted my business to Koti after the blast. It shook us all.”
Although the eviction inadvertently saved lives, the blasts shattered livelihoods. For nearly three months, business in Dilsukhnagar came to a standstill. “We had no income, and the fear lingered,” said one hawker. “It felt like our lives had paused.” Over a decade later, the memories remain vivid.
“But somehow, we kept going. Life has to move on,” said Venugopal. For these vendors, survival came through a twist of fate — and the unexpected intervention of the very authorities they once resented.
