Reasi attack: Delhi survivor recalls hiding children under bus seat as bullets were fired

A survivor from Delhi recalls hiding his children under bus seat during the attack in Reasi

"I bent down and hid my two children under the bus seat as bullets were being fired from hills... I will never forget those 20-25 minutes of horror," Bhawani Shankar, a survivor of the deadly terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, said on June 10.

A resident of Delhi's Tughlakbad Extension, Mr. Shankar said he had gone to visit the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu on his marriage anniversary on June 6. He was accompanied by his wife Radha Devi and two children — five-year-old daughter Deeksha and three-year-old son Raghav.

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Mr. Shankar and his family members are among the five hailing from Delhi injured in the terror attack and are undergoing treatment in Jammu and Kasmir hospitals.

Nine people were killed and 41 injured as the terrorists opened fire at the 53-seater bus, which was on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra, causing it to veer off the road and fall into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area of Reasi on Sunday evening.

"On June 6, we boarded the Shree Shakti Express from Delhi and reached Katra. On June 7, we went to Vaishno Devi temple and returned to our hotel room by midnight on June 8," Mr. Shankar told PTI on phone.

"On June 9, we took the bus for Shiv Khori temple from Katra and bought two tickets of ₹250, each for the trip," he said.