Shortly after the Samjhauta Express pulled out of Old Delhi station last night, it was 11 pm, way beyond their bed time but they were too excited to sleep. So when Ruksana Shaukat Ali told her six children that it was time to turn in, they couldn’t care less. Minutes later, she and her husband Rana Shaukat Ali saw five of them die: Aisha, 15, Bilal, 13, Meer Hamza,11, Abdul Rehman, 6, Aasma, 4.

Tonight, lying on the bed in the Burns and Plastic Surgery Ward of Safdarjung hospital, Ruksana and husband Rana are praying that their youngest, one-year-old daughter Aksa, doesn’t leave them childless.

“Minutes before the blast, they were all playing, shouting in the coach, my wife and I had to forcibly ask them to sleep. Barely had we fallen asleep when we heard a loud roar. I opened my eyes, it was very difficult, I saw my children slowly dying. Blood was streaming from their faces, the blast had occurred right near their berths. A security personnel was also sitting near them and he was dead. Later, it all went dark and when I regained consciousness, I was in the hospital,” said Rana Shaukat Ali, 46. He has 15 per cent burns along with his wife with 10 per cent burn injuries and Aksa.

Like all the victims — many yet to be identified — their story is an India-Pakistan story, about families making that journey across the border to meet each other, restore and renew relationships, now shattered by the terror attack.

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