Bhopal: Shayara Bano, wife of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy activist Abdul Jabbar, who has been awarded Padma Shri posthumously, on Sunday said that they would have received this honour together if Jabbar was alive.
Abdul Jabbar, who fought for the betterment of the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri.
"I am happy as well sad at the same time. We would have received this honour together if he was alive," Bano said.
Jabbar passed away following a cardiac arrest on 15th of November, 2019. Fondly known as 'Jabbar Bhai', the activist was ailing and being treated for high blood sugar and foot infection for the last couple of months before his death.
Read: 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy activist Abdul Jabbar, awarded Padma Shri
Jabbar lived just 2km from the now-abandoned Union Carbide plant, where, in December 1984, a deadly gas leak, killing thousands of people and rendering more than one lakh others disabled.
Jabbar, who was himself a survivor of the world's worst industrial disaster, later emerged as one of the leading figures who organised several protests, seeking compensation for the gas tragedy victims' kin and survivors.
In 1987, the activist set up the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan, one of the organisations that have been championing the cause of the gas tragedy victims and survivors for the last 30 years.
