Jaipur- Mamta and Rajendra Saini’s three children are waiting for their parents’ return from a Vaishno Devi pilgrimage. They will never come back.
Cloth merchant Rajendra Saini (42), his wife Mamta (40), their relative Pooja Saini (30) and her two-year-old son Titu are among the nine killed after terrorists opened fire at a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu’s Reasi district on Sunday evening.
The couple’s two sons, one of them a minor, and daughter have been told that their parents were injured in a road accident in Jammu and they were being brought to Jaipur for treatment, the relatives said.
The 53-seater bus, on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to Katra, veered off the road following the barrage of gunfire and fell into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area.
Pooja Saini’s husband Pavan (32) has been injured, a police officer said.
While Rajendra and Mamta were residents of Chomu town near Jaipur, Pavan and Pooja were from Ajmera ki Dhani in the Harmada area on Chomu Road.
Residents of the two areas were stunned into silence upon receiving the news of the deaths.
“We came to know last night that the bus had fallen into a ditch and it was an accident. But today we came to know that terrorists had attacked the bus and it fell into a gorge,” said a relative of Rajendra Saini.
She said Rajendra’s children do not know the truth yet.
“They only know that their parents are injured and are being brought here. Rajendra was the sole earning member,” she added.
In Ajmera ki Dhani, just a few kilometres from Chomu, family members are mourning the death of Pooja and her two-year-old kid. Pooja was married to Pawan, who runs an e-Mitra shop in the village, four years ago.
Chomu Tehsildar Vijaypal said post-mortem has been conducted in Jammu and Kashmir and the bodies will be brought to Jaipur. Efforts will be made to get the affected families the benefit of various state government schemes, he said.
Financial assistance to the family will be provided as per the Rajasthan government norms and donors will be motivated to support the orphaned children of Rajendra, the tehsildar said.
Two persons among the nine victims of the deadly terror attack are from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district, officials said on Monday.
Among the 41 injured in the Sunday evening attack, 10 are from Balrampur district, eight from Gonda district and four of a family from Gorakhpur, they said.
District Magistrate of Balrampur Arvind Singh said 12 devotees from the district had gone on a pilgrimage to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu.
Terrorists opened fire at a bus carrying pilgrims in Reasi district on Sunday, killing nine and injuring several. The 53-seater bus, on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to Katra, veered off the road following the barrage of gunfire and fell into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area.
Ruby and Anurag Verma, both children, from Kandhbhari village died while 10 were injured and have been admitted to hospitals in Jammu, the Balrampur district magistrate said, adding the sub-divisional magistrates of Uttaraula and Balrampur have been instructed to contact the affected families and provide them help.
Gonda District Magistrate Neha Sharma said eight members of a family from the district were also injured in the terrorist attack. All of them have been evacuated by the relief and rescue team and admitted to hospitals, she added.
Sharma said she has spoken to the family members of the survivors and assured them of all possible help from the administration. “We are keeping an eye on the situation. Some of the devotees were injured after being shot at while many suffered serious injuries as the bus fell into the gorge,” she said.
“Some of the injured devotees had to undergo surgery. A magistrate and a deputy SP-rank police officer from the district are being sent to Jammu to help the victims,” the Gonda DM said.
Suryanath Gupta, a resident of Bhikharipur village, said eight members of his family had left for Jammu on June 4 to offer prayers at the Vaishno Devi shrine. While one of his family members has been admitted to the government hospital in Katra, the rest have been admitted to a hospital in Jammu, he said.
Those injured in the terrorist attack also included four pilgrims from a family from Gorakhpur.
Seventeen family members from Gorakhpur had embarked on the pilgrimage. Two of the injured are residents of Purdilpur Kali Mandir Gali, while the other two are from Bhairopur in the Kuraghat area.
Gautam Gupta (District Disaster Expert-District Disaster Management Authority, Gorakhpur) confirmed the incident.
He said the injured are receiving treatment in a local hospital and are reported to be in stable condition. The district administration is providing necessary assistance to the victims and their families, the official said.
Gupta added the family had split into two groups, with 13 members staying in Katra and four heading to the Shiv Khori pilgrimage site. It was during this journey that the terrorist attack took place.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a statement issued by the party, strongly condemned the attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir and said the incident occurred at a politically very sensitive time in the country.
The news of people getting killed in the terrorist attack due to the “negligence” of the security management is sad and highly condemnable, the SP statement said.
The government should wake up and send the bodies to the families and at the same time provide the best possible treatment to the injured as well as proper compensation to all the casualties, the Samajwadi Party chief said.
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