But reaching the hospital at 10 am after a night-long journey from Rampur in UP, they were told to check Casket No. 45 by Inspector Sat Prakash.

“No, this is not my sister. Look how this poor woman’s body is charred and shrunken. My baaji Ara Jahan was a beautiful, healthy woman and as tall as my brother Nasir,” says a weeping Zakira.

On Sunday, Nasir Ali Khan had put his sister on the Attari Special. Now he can’t forget how she kept saying she wanted to stay on in his country with her siblings. “Look how she has stayed on in our country as she wished,” says Nasir. “I had told her that she had to go home to her children. She had come home to us, her maika, in Rampur after nine years last month and had done a lot of shopping. Now all has gone up in flames.”

Another two hours go by as the brother-sister duo peer into one casket after another —- 46,47,49, 21. As they see the badly burnt bodies, Zakira and Nasir start losing hope if they will be able to recognise their sister if they eventually find her.

The next number on their list is Casket Number 31. “The police say it may be her,” mumbles the brother. As the search is on, they get a phone call from Aurangi in Pakistan. It is Nasir’s brother-in-law, Mubarak Ali Khan, calling up to find out about his 55-year-old wife.

“Tumhare-hamare ghar ki roshni to nahi bujhi na?” he asks. Nasir tells him to call back in 10 minutes. It’s 1.30 pm now and the two again scan the lists —- of those injured lying in Safdarjung Hospital, those who reached Attari safely and the few identified dead bodies in Panipat. Still no sign of Ara Jahan.

Finally it is the turn of Casket No. 31. A woman’s body lies half-burnt inside. One look and Zakira breaks down, even as she tentatively touches the woman’s hair and a clip her sister was wearing. “She is fair like baaji, is as tall and well-built as her,” the words are forced out of her.

Inspector Sat Prakash comes with a sealed packet with the number 31 written on it. He opens the packet before Zakira and pulls out charcoal black bits of garment, a tattered sock and a chain with a triangular pendant. “She was wearing warm socks like these,” Zakira whispers.

Finally at 2 pm, Casket No. 31 has a tag: 55-year-old Ara Jahan, wife of Mubarak Ali Khan, mother of Shabab, Jamshed, Samia, Safia and Uruj, resident of Aurangi in Pakistan. Identified by a tattered sock she was wearing at the time her body was removed from the Attari Special.

Nasir musters all his courage to call up Ara Jahan’s daughter Samia. “We are very unfortunate... Abbajaan ko sambhalo,” he mumbles before breaking down. Police begin their procedures. Half an hour later Shabab calls back from Aurangi. “I am coming to get my mother home. Do not take her to Rampur,” he says. Nasir throws up his hands in despair. “What did those people get by killing my sister, what had she done?”