A forensic expert collects samples from the site. (PTI)

Ahmedabad, Sept. 30: The boy asked his mom to make a cup of tea and stepped out to get medicines for his aunt.

The cup trembled as a boom shook the neighbourhood minutes later. Then the tea turned cold.

Seventeen-year-old Jainuddin Ghori did not come back. He never will.

He was killed by the blast that rocked Modasa in Gujarat last night around the time people were breaking the Ramazan fast and shopping in anticipation of Id.

The bomb was placed on a Hero Honda motorcycle in the bustling Sukha Bazaar area of the town, some 110km from Ahmedabad.

Still a boy, Jainuddin was like the only man in the family, its sole bread-earner. He sold fruits from his handcart after working in a garage.

His sister is a heart patient and his mother’s left leg is paralysed. His father, 63, has stopped working. Ayubhai Ghori, frequently ill now, used to work in the same garage where Jainuddin went.

“No amount of government compensation can make up for the loss of my son,” Ayubhai said.

Hours later, the state government announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.

Jainuddin, Ayubhai said, was “matured for his tender age” because of his “care and concern” for his family — two things almost impossible to match with money. “He used to take care of all his sister’s medical expenses…. Now he is gone; there is no hope,” Ayubhai said.

The family lives in a slum called Baloch Wada, the sort that would never have made it to anyone’s notice but for a tragedy like yesterday’s.

Jainuddin’s cousin Mujaluddin, who had left home with him for the medicine store, is battling death in hospital. Mujaluddin is also 17. Two others were also said to be in critical condition.

Witnesses saw a “flash of light” as the bomb went off. The explosion was so severe that water tanks, 30 to 50 feet high, burst under the impact of flying shrapnel.