M A I N   N E W S

Rescuers brave bullets

Kaluchak (Jammu) May 14
Bodies lay in a pool of blood and shoes were scattered as the bloody trail left by gun-wielding militants after attacking a passenger bus and an Army camp in the morning today bore a mute testimony to the massacre of at least 34 persons.

Local shopkeepers and residents won wholesome praise from the survivors of the ghastly attack for braving grenade attacks and a hail of bullets in rescuing the injured and taking them to hospitals and in shifting the bodies.

A retired headmaster of the border area of RS Pora, Mr Bagat Ram, who lost his wife in the firing, said that local shopkeepers and residents risked their lives in braving the hail of bullets.

“The police reached the spot after an hour while Army men were busy in gunbattle inside,” Mr Ram said. Some shopkeepers also spoke of their narrow escape.

“We had a narrow escape, when militants also fired a grenade and a few rounds on us, as we came out of shops and rushed to the spot after hearing gun shots,” local shopkeeper Roop Lal said.

Utter chaos prevailed on the Jammu-Poonch National Highway as vehicles were caught in a traffic jam. People were believed to have abandoned their vehicles and run for cover. Mr Ram said the three militants boarded the bus at Bari Brahamana on the Jammu-Pathankot highway, about an hour’s drive from Jammu and later stopped the bus near the gate of the K.P. Lines family quarters at Kaluchak in the cantonment area. It was not immediately known if the militants forcibly boarded the bus.

They asked us to come down and fired on all who disembarked, killing seven on the spot and injuring two.

Mr Ram says that his wife could have been saved if she was shifted to hospital quickly. PTI