Calm after Kaluchak shattered

Rajiv Nagar is an area inhabited by an impoverished community comprising daily-wage workers, rag-pickers and small vendors. Connected to the main Narwal Bypass Road via a dirt-track, it has the dense Raika forests to its south.

Because of a burst transformer, there has been no power supply to the area for the last four days. And today, in the darkness, it was the wails of the residents that led reporters to the site.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Dilbagh Singh said he could not specify how many militants were involved. ‘‘It’s too early to say anything,’’ he said.

Relatives of victims said that at least six militants walked into the colony and one of them threw a grenade at a temple. The grenade, however, missed the target and fell nearby. Before residents could realise what had happened, the militants fanned out and started firing before throwing a second grenade.

‘‘At 7.15 pm, I was having an ice-cream with my two daughters when a militant threw a grenade towards us. When I opened my eyes, I saw my daughter Anku lying dead in a pool of her blood,’’ said Santosh, a 24-year-old woman.

‘‘Initially, I thought someone was bursting crackers. It was only when my 12-year-old daughter Sunita fell on me that I realised what had happened,’’ said Nanku Chand, a daily-wage labourer, with blood splattered all over his shirt.

Lacho Devi said that her daughter Chandni was hungry and she had asked her to wait for her father to return from work. ‘‘Meri bachchi bhooki mar gayi (She died hungry),’’ she cried.

Police have cordoned the Raika forests—where the militants are said to have fled—and the Army has reached the scene. Sounds of gunfire could be heard in the area late in the night suggesting an ongoing encounter.

Gopal Krishan, a labourer, thought sadhus were going to the temple to offer prayers. But soon he was running for cover as the ‘‘sadhus’’ had taken out their assault rifles and started firing.

At the GMC hospital, a mother was searching for her children. She stopped near Manohar, her neighbour, and asked him if he had seen any of her family members in the hospital. ‘‘I don’t know,’’ was the brief reply that came from Manohar.