When terror came home

Singh’s cousin, Dhanatar Singh, said, “As he ran out, he saw militants wearing police uniforms. He asked one of them to show his identity card. He was fired at twice and died on the spot.”

The scene was no different at the house of 22-year old Sandeep Singh. Relatives had assembled in the courtyard to console his mother, Kanti Devi. On Wednesday, militants were hiding in the locality and as Armymen took their position for a gun battle with the terrorists near Sandeep’s house, his mother tried her best to deter him from visiting a local ashram. She even tried locking Sandeep inside the storeroom. His sister, Seema Chib, said, “He told mother that he will go to the ashram where the swamiji will protect him. Though we tried to stop him, he ran out on the road and was killed by the militants.”

Thirty-seven-year-old Vijay Kumar, head constable with Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry was supposed to join his new posting at Jaipur this week. On that fateful day, he had taken his father’s auto to reach the family’s welding shop at Bantalab. On the way, militants caught him and killed him barely a kilometre away from his house. He is survived by his wife and three children.

“When I heard that militants were hiding in the area I tried calling up my son, but he wasn’t picking up his mobile phone. When I went to the shop, he wasn’t there either. Later, I found his dead body near a pond. Armymen had surrounded the auto that he was driving and only after I insisted that I was his father did they allow me to take the body home,” said Vijay’s father, Sita Ram.

A morning ride of two brothers to fetch milk ended in the death of one. Shabeel Hussain of Raipur, Jammu, was riding a motorcycle along with his brother when militants sprayed bullets at them. His brother ducked and survived, while Shabeel died on the spot.