‘We feared that terrorists would come down and kill us on the spot’: Reasi bus attack's survivor recall horrors

Recounting the horror, the survivors of the Reasi bus attack said that they saw terrorists appearing in the middle of the road and indiscriminately firing on the vehicle. As the bus driver lost control and the bus fell down into the gorge, many lives were saved.

Santosh Kumar Verma, a resident of Balrampur in UP, one of the injured said that they were returning after performing Darshan at Shivkhori when one terrorist appeared in the middle of the road and started indiscriminate firing on the bus.

ALSO READ- Reasi bus terror attack: Four from Rajasthan, three from UP among nine victims

“The bus fell into the deep gorge after the driver of the bus was hit by bullets. There was hue and cry. We told the people to stop crying as the terrorist was still firing towards us. We feared that terrorists would come down and kill us on the spot,” he said adding that he was seated just behind the driver and was lucky to not get the hit. “I could only see one terrorist in black military fatigues firing towards the bus. After the bus fell into a gorge we couldn’t see anything. We only heard bullet sounds which stopped after some time.”

Verma, who received minor injuries on the forehead and bruises on his body, said security forces and locals came to help within half an hour. “After half an hour police, army and locals arrived at the spot and helped in the rescue operation,” said Verma, whose wife, son and brother also got injured in the attack. “There were 14 people in our group and fortunately all of us survived.”

ALSO READ- Reasi survivors played dead as terrorists kept firing after bus fell into gorge

Another passenger, Atul Mishra said all the passengers were enjoying the journey when something hit our vehicle. “Soon the driver lost control of the vehicle and the bus fell down deep into the gorge. It happened so quickly that we were only able to guess what had happened when we heard sounds of bullets as the bus fell down,” he said while recuperating at the Government Medical College(GMC), Jammu.

Another injured pilgrim who didn’t disclose his name said the terrorists wanted to kill all of the passengers in the bus. “There were more than 50 people in the bus when the firing started, the driver lost control and it fell down deep in a gorge. The terrorists didn’t come down, instead kept on firing for some time and left. Many of us were saved as terrorists couldn’t target us directly after the bus went down. Everybody in the bus feared that terrorists could chase us and kill us one by one,” he said the people who rescued the injured passengers told us there was more than one terrorist involved in the attack on bus.

ALSO READ- ‘Have to start war with Pak if…’: Union minister says Reasi terror attack was ‘deliberate’

Among the nine dead, two (driver and conductor) were from J&K, seven others from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Reasi deputy commissioner Vishesh Paul Mahajan said that nine people were killed and 42 injured in the attack. “Eighteen of the injured are in GMC, 12 at Narayana and 10 people in other hospitals. The driver of the bus was local,” he said adding all the help was extended to the injured passengers.