Manama: Still reeling under the tragic terror blast that on Friday shattered their placid community, residents of Qadeeh in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province are trying to piece together what happened and to fathom why of all the places they were the one targeted.
Everyone has a harrowing story to share, a piece of the tragic puzzle to contribute to the overall picture.
Most residents recalled seeing last week two men begging near the Imam Ali mosque where the blast occurred. At the time, they looked strange, but inoffensive and seemed to seek help from the worshippers. But today, the residents are sure they were monitoring the place and planning the evil act.
“Two people not from this town approached me on Thursday evening and claimed they were from Yemen,” Shaikh Abdul Aal Al Abdul Aal, the imam of the mosque, said. “They asked for financial help, but I told them that I could not provide them with money because the instructions from the state were very specific about donations being given or collected only through institutions. I believe that the two were monitoring the area and checking the details for their objective,” the imam said, quoted by local daily Al Sharq on Sunday.
Abdul Kareem Abdullah Al Marar, a wounded victim of the terror attack, corroborated the imam’s testimony.
“I saw two people on Thursday evening and they carried with them a piece of paper to ask for assistance,” Abdul Kareem said from his hospital bed in Al Qateef Central Hospital. “One of them looked like the man on a picture shown to me by relatives after the tragic bombing.”
Abdul Kareem, 57, added that he did not see the bomber as he was standing in the front row of the worshippers. The bomber was reportedly standing in the middle of the mosque, probably in the fifth row.
“We heard the mosque door being opened and shut forcefully and then a big blast. I was struck by shrapnel in the left leg and I used my headscarf to try to stop the bleeding. My son who himself was hit during the attack helped me out and took me to a health facility. We are both hospitalized here, but our condition is stable and we are faring well,” the father of nine, five sons and four daughters, said.
