‘I saw him falling, his new shirt lay by’

The guns could still be heard booming inside Raghunath temple, as ambulances ferried the injured to the hospital this evening. Most of them were victims of the market blast.

Volunteers could be seen moving out with stretchers nearly every five minutes to carry the victims inside. The relatives of the injured also kept pouring into the hospital.

After breaking her fast, Dilshada of Gagribal, Srinagar, was offering her prayers when she heard that her brother Ashiq Hussain had been injured in the attack.

‘‘I heard my sister crying ‘Ashiq … Ashiq’ over the telephone. I did not cut my prayers short but raised my hands asking Allah for his safety,’’ says Dilshada, whose happiness knew no bounds when she her brother responding to treatment at the hospital. ‘‘Allah ne meri sun li (Allah has answered my prayers),’’ she adds with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Chotu and his family were not as lucky. They first got the message that his father was out of danger despite bullet wounds. But half-an-hour later, a man dressed in khaki came rushing to their home to say that they should go to the hospital immediately as his father’s condition had deteriorated. Chotu, who was waiting for his father to return for a family dinner at his aunt’s place, saw him breathe his last this evening.

Another victim of today’s blast, Raju (25), a salesman at a dry-fruit stall, was about to leave for his Nagrota home when the shopowner asked him to fetch a cake for his son’s birthday.

‘‘As I came near Raghunath temple, I heard a loud noise that was followed by anther bang. I don’t know what happened after that as I lay

unconscious,’’ says Raju, writhing on the

hospital bed.

Another figure who could be seen making the rounds of the hospital was Narendra Singh. Every now and then, he stopped before a hospital ward and peeped in through a window to see whether doctors have been able to revive his injured colleague, Assistant Sub-Inspector Balbinder Singh. Finding no change in his condition, Narendra barged into the room and asked the doctors to take his blood to save his friend. He had to be escorted out of the cabin.

Balbinder, a Personal Security Officer to

Police Superintendent Manohar Singh, was hit

by bullets when he barged into the temple to

offer magazines to a junior officer caught in

the crossfire.

‘‘He had just handed over the magazine to save another cop’s life when bullets struck him,’’ says Narinder.