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‘I lost two of my family in the carnage'
Rashid Razaq04.12.08
A London businessman has told how his nephew and niece-in-law were killed in the Mumbai terror attacks.
Gunmen burst into the restaurant on the ground floor of the Oberoi hotel and shot them both as they dined on a trip to visit relatives.
Hiro Harjani is flying to India where the couple's two sons, aged three and nine, were travelling with their Dubai-based mother Lavina, 28 and father Mohit Harjani, 32.
He said: "I want to go and see if I can bring them to London and adopt them."
The 47-year-old owner of a fashion business from Golders Green was one of hundreds of bankers and City workers who gathered to remember the Mumbai victims in a candlelit vigil at Canary Wharf last night.
Mr Harjani, who learnt of his family's loss on Friday morning in a phone call from his father, said: "We need solidarity. We need to get together like this. I'm going to support every event. We have to keep making noises until everyone wakes up.
"We need the global community to be aware and to take more action. This is not just an India and Pakistan problem, it's a world problem. It could spark a third world war."
Also at the vigil, organised by Indian charity SewaVolunteers, was Anwar Hasan, the group representative for Tata Group, which runs the Taj Hotel targeted during the violence.
"In the 60 hours that the terrorist attacks lasted in India, I watched each and every minute of it on television. Not being in India, I felt I had to be part of something happening collectively," he said.
Mr Hasan, who has lived in London for almost 10 years said that he knew many people who were caught up in the events at the Taj.
"There were 10 of my colleagues who died in the hotel. The general manager of the hotel lost his wife and his children who were staying in the flat that belonged to the hotel."
Organisers said a second candlelit vigil had to be held at Liverpool Street station to meet the demand among workers in the City.
