New Delhi: The night of June 13 was a difficult one for India in more ways than one. As our soldiers battled the fourth consecutive terror attack in the Jammu region in less than 100 hours, two villages in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh mourned the loss of their children. The mortal remains of two-year-old Kittu, also known as Lavyansh Saini, and 14-year-old Anurag Verma were buried. They were among the victims of a terror attack in Jammu’s Reasi. Their bus, returning to Katra, Vaishno Devi, from Shiv Khori, another pilgrimage spot, was ambushed by at least three foreign terrorists.
After the driver was hit, the bus veered off the road and fell into a deep gorge. That did not deter the terrorists, who kept firing to inflict maximum damage. But had the driver not veered the bus toward the gorge, the militants would have killed all the passengers; that was their target, according to security officials. Kittu and Anurag were the youngest of nine people killed in the attack.
The Reasi terror attack has shaken the country. A bus full of pilgrims, unaware of the impending tragedy, was bound together by more than just the trauma of the attack. It was poverty that not just brought them together but also made them vulnerable. All the people on the 53-seater bus, including the nine who died, came from poor families. They had been saving money to visit Vaishno Devi, often choosing the cheapest mode of transport, a bus, to save on costs.
As the country begins tweeting #AllEyesOnReasi, comparing the brutal killings of Hindu pilgrims in Jammu to the killings in Palestine by Israel and spreading more hate and division, no one really knows the stories of the victims and the wants of their families. At a time when the number of dead in terror attacks is often reduced to mere figures, The Wire set out to understand the human cost of this attack.
Ruby Verma, 23, was a teacher at Vallabhbhai Patel Inter College, pursuing her postgraduate studies with dreams of becoming a professor and representing her country overseas. She juggled two jobs to support her two sisters after losing their father at an early age. Her mother’s dream was to visit Vaishno Devi, and Ruby made that dream come true. But a terrorist’s bullet shattered it in no time. Ruby’s brother, a labourer who stayed back home, told The Wire, “After our father passed away, our mother struggled too hard to keep us alive. She even sold all her clothes and worked at people’s houses to ensure Ruby studied, because all of us had big hopes for her. She had it in her to become big one day. I don’t know how to tell my mother, who is still unconscious, that Ruby is dead. She will not be able to take it; she will die too.” Ruby’s mother is one of the survivors who suffered a bullet injury, reportedly from an M-16 assault rifle, as per security officials.
Pawan Kumar Saini and his wife Pooja, who was killed in the attack. Photo: Special arrangement
Two-year-old Kittu Saini, the youngest casualty, was on his first trip with his family. His father, 33-year-old Pawan Kumar Saini, an e-Mitra who earns barely Rs 10,000 a month helping people with Aadhaar cards, had saved money for this journey. Now, he lies in the hospital after two surgeries, with an iron rod fixed inside his right arm forever after it was crushed under the driver’s seat. “If pilgrims are not safe in this country, who is?” Pawan asked, groaning in pain after his surgery. “Kittu lay in a pool of blood for 15-20 minutes after being hit by a bullet which crossed an inch above my head. I couldn’t even give him water in his last moments because I was pretending to be dead as the militants approached the bus. Everyone was trying hard to stay silent, hoping the militants wouldn’t hear them, praying for the security forces to reach them in time. I lost my wife and my son. I don’t know who to go back to. This attack destroyed my life forever. Who is responsible for this?”
Sixty-year-old Om Prakash Saini from Rajasthan lost his daughter Pooja and three other family members in the attack. “My entire family is completely destroyed. My younger brother, his wife, my daughter and my grandson all died in the attack. All they wanted was to go to a temple where they had faith. Now I think I should have stopped them. They could have gone to any temple in Rajasthan; at least they would be alive today. The government declares an area safe; that is when we send our family members there. But will the government take responsibility for these deaths? Do they guarantee that no one else will die like my family?”
Rajat Ram Sharma from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district lost his 16-year-old son, who dreamed of becoming a judge. “As soon as I saw the driver getting hit in the head, I jumped on my son to save him. I pushed my wife and son under the seat, but the bus fell into the gorge, and I lost my grip on my son. There was continuous firing for 10-15 minutes. My son, in front of my eyes, was hit by a bullet and dropped dead on the floor. I had no way to help him or rush him to the hospital. I had to stay quiet for the safety of other passengers. If the terrorists heard us screaming or running, they would have killed us all. I will never forget the dying face of my son, and I will never stop wondering if I could have saved him.”
Fifty-eight-year-old Shyam Pati Devi from Balrampur sent five family members, including two sons, a daughter, a grandson and a son-in-law, on the pilgrimage. All five are hospitalised in Jammu, with one suffering a bullet injury. “It was a big deal for us to travel to Jammu. We could only save enough to send five people, so my husband and I stayed back. When we were told that our kids were attacked by terrorists, I fainted. I could have never imagined it. We used to hear about such attacks but never thought we would be victims of it one day.” She adds, “No one should go through what our kids went through. I am not educated, but I know the cost of hatred. We have seen it in several incidents. This incident should teach people all over the world to say no to violence because it has never served anyone. Only those responsible for this attack should be punished without any mercy.”
Officials reported that over 40 people were injured in the attack, with 10 sustaining bullet wounds. Reasi was the first in a series of four consecutive terror attacks that have killed nine civilians and one CRPF jawan in the last 100 hours, injured 34 civilians, and six soldiers. Two terrorists have been killed by the forces on the ground, but Jammu remains on high alert.
These stories are a stark reminder of the human cost of terrorism. The loss, pain, and trauma experienced by these families cannot be measured in numbers.
Tanushree Pandey is an independent journalist.
