Twenty years on: Docklands bomb victims remembered

A memorial was held at South Quay station. Pic: Simisola Jasmine Jolaoso

Twenty years on from the IRA Docklands bombing, survivors and families of the victims killed and injured in the blast gathered at Canary Wharf to remember the events of 1996.

The bombing killed two and injured 40. Those killed were Inam Bashir, 29 and John Jeffries 31, who were in the newsagents opposite South Quay station, where 70m away, a lorry with a bomb containing ammonium nitrate and sugar, exploded at exactly 7.01pm.

The memorial service, held on February 9, was also open to those affected by the 1983 Harrods bombing, July 7 2005 attacks and the Mumbai and Paris attacks.

Those in attendance included the brother and [former] co-owner of the newsagents Ihsan Bashir, nephew of the victim Aazim Ihsan, Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs and survivor of the bombing and President of the Docklands Victims Association, Jonathan Ganesh.

Aazim Ihsam, a nephew of victim. Pic: Simisola Jasmine Jolaoso

Another survivor Joyce Brown, who was working as a cleaner in Midland Bank, a building not far from where the bomb exploded, which was also badly affected by it, recalled that fateful day: “That particular evening, because it was a Friday, I decided to change my route. Now instead of going from the first floor to the eighth floor, I decided to go from the eighth floor to the first floor. All of a sudden, I just heard a pop, not a bang, but a pop.

“I got a bit panicky, the door had been ripped off. I stepped into the corridor and saw water everywhere. I didn’t know what had happened. I picked up the red phone on the wall and the man at the other side told me a bomb had just exploded. I said to him, ‘please don’t leave me here’. To me it’s fate that I’m here to tell the tale. ”