Jammu terror attacks: A victim and two survivors

Suresh,36,was the first one killed in Hiranagar. He runs a photocopying shop near Hiranagar police station and was opening it around 6.45 am when the three arrived fired indiscriminately. At home,his father Moti Ram,70,heard the gunshots and grenade blasts. “I was scared and waited for the noise to end. After 15-20 minutes I went out and found my son lying in a pool of blood.”

Suresh is survived by his wife Renu Bala,30,and daughter Vanika,5. “Suresh had got Vanika admitted to school this year. Every day he would open the shop,say his prayers,go back home and take her to school. She was getting ready today,” says Suraj,Suresh’s elder brother.

“We have not yet told Vanika,” says Moti Ram.“We thought we were lucky to have a house near the police station. When the police themselves are not safe,who can save the people?”

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Ratan Singh

The constable was in the Hiranagar police station when the militants barged in. “They were firing in all directions. The sentry was shot dead. Since I didn’t have weapons,I locked myself in a room upstairs. But since we could not launch a counterattack,the terrorists realised that we were unarmed. They came upstairs and opened fire again. I jumped out of the window. They fired at me; a few bullets hit me in my arm. But I escaped alive,” says constable Ratan Singh,who suffered multiple fractures in the right leg besides the bullet injuries in the arm.

Gangu Ram

The assistant sub-inspector was hit in his leg and abdomen. “I was standing on the terrace of my quarters. They saw me and fired,” says Gangu Ram,who played dead. “They kept on firing at anybody they saw. It appeared as if they had come with a plan to demolish everything. Even the man sitting in the control room could not send a message in time. It was our misfortune that we were without weapons. If we had got even five minutes…”

Doctors treating the injured in a hospital in Jammu say the condition of some is critical.