A file picture of Arjun and his mother after the blast

Siliguri, Nov. 29: Within 24 hours of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s visit to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) to see the Belakoba bomb blast victims, an injured passenger succumbed to his wounds, raising the official death toll to eight.

Safikul Islam (18), a resident of Torolpara in Jalpaiguri, died at 7.50 this morning, nine days after the incident. He was travelling on the Haldibari-NJP Passenger in the ill-fated second class general coach with his relatives when the high-powered bomb ripped the bogie apart.

“On the same night, doctors operated on him and took out a number of splinters from his intestine,” said Samir Ghosh Roy, the superintendent of NBMCH. “He was recuperating but even then, he was not out of danger. His condition deteriorated overnight. His body has, however, been sent for post-mortem, and we cannot comment on the cause of death now. But we want to stress that the best possible efforts were made.”

Safikul’s family, however, is not satisfied with the explanation. “When the chief minister himself expressed satisfaction over the condition of the victims yesterday, how can my son die so suddenly?” asked a wailing Rehman Ali, Safikul’s father. “My son must have developed some severe complication which doctors here could not diagnose or remained nonchalant even after knowing it,” Ali alleged.

Though an unfortunate Safikul could not make it, six-year-old Arjun Verma, the most critically injured of the 53 blast victims, is slowly recovering after the brain surgery that was conducted on him a day after the blast.

“He is now asking for his mother. These are good signs,” said S.R. Sharma, the neurosurgeon of a private nursing home who had operated on Arjun.

The Northeast Frontier Railway authorities have in the meantime handed over the additional ex-gratia that they are paying to the family members of the deceased, sources said.