‘We lay on the ground… pretended to be dead until militants left’: Survivors recount Reasi terror attack horror in J-K
Nine people, including seven pilgrims, were killed and 38 people were injured in the attack on the bus near Ransoo.
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It was on their way back from Shiv Khouri to Katra that their bus was targeted by militants. (PTI Photo)From parents mourning the loss of their children to people who laid still and pretended to be dead to escape the gunmen’s fire, the survivors of Sunday’s terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district were struggling to recover from the shock.
They were from different states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, and after visiting the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine near Katra town, they took a bus on Sunday morning to Shiv Khouri – a revered shrine of Lord Shiva near Ransoo in Pouni tehsil. It was on their way back from Shiv Khouri to Katra that their bus was targeted by militants.
Nine people, including seven pilgrims, were killed and 38 people were injured in the attack on the bus near Ransoo.
Santosh Kumar Verma from UP’s Balrampur district was with his family on the bus, and was seated on the driver’s side. He said the bus had hardly moved a few kilometres from Ransoo when he saw a militant wearing a mask standing on the roadside, opening fire at the bus driver.
Army personnel conduct a search operation in Reasi district of J&K Monday. (PTI)
“On seeing the militant, the first thing that struck my mind was that we will not survive,” he said. “Before I could think any further, I saw the driver’s head falling on the steering wheel, and the bus falling into the gorge.”
Devi Prasad, a private school teacher from Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda area, recalled that even after the bus rolled down into the gorge, militants continued firing from the road for nearly five minutes.
“We lay on the ground without making any movement. We pretended to be dead until the militants left,” he said.
After that, local residents arrived at the spot and started bringing the dead and the injured up from the gorge and on to the road. Soon, they were joined by police and security forces, who reached there from Pouni, Ransoo, and Reasi.
Rajat Ram Verma, who along with his wife and son, was sitting at the back of the bus, said he initially thought the gunshot sounds were the result of some short circuit in the vehicle. “Suddenly, someone cried that militants had attacked the bus. I immediately pushed my wife and son under the seat, but before we could take the cover, the bus fell down into the gorge and I lost my grip on my son,” he recalled.
“Later, when I enquired about him, my wife told me that he is no more,” he said.
Rajat Ram was admitted in Reasi district hospital, while his wife Sharda Devi is undergoing treatment in Katra. Their 14-year-old son, Anurag, was among the dead.
They were part of a group of 14 people from UP’s Balrampur district to reach Katra on June 7. Rajat’s brother-in-law Santosh Kumar Verma, his wife Geeta Devi, son Shiva Verma, brother Dinesh Kumar Verma, and cousin Rubby Verma were also part of the 14-member group. Rubby (23) also died Sunday.
“We had return train tickets for June 12, so we decided to go to Shiv Khouri, and boarded a bus at Katra on Sunday morning. We had planned to have a night halt at Katra after returning from Shiv Khori and proceed to Jammu on June 10 to stay with a relative,” Rajat said of their plans.
Other than Rubby and Anurag, the other pilgrims who died in the incident were Pooja Sawhney, two-year-old Kitu Sawhney, Rajinder Prasad Sawhney and Mamta Sawhney, all from Jaipur, and Sourav Gupta from Delhi’s Mandoli.
The bus driver Vijay Kumar and conductor Arun Kumar, from Reasi district’s Dasanoo and Kundriyan respectively, also died in the terror attack.
The injured are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Reasi, Katra, and Jammu.
Nearly all the pilgrims on the bus were visiting Shiv Khouri for the first time. Devi Prasad Gupta, a private school teacher from UP’s Gonda, said, “We had planned a visit there after having watched videos of the Shiv Khouri shrine on social media.”
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