Two from UP’s Balrampur among nine killed in Reasi bus terror attack
Gonda/Balrampur/Gorakhpur (UP): Two persons from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district are among the nine victims of the deadly terror attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, officials said on Monday.
Among the 41 injured in the Sunday evening attack, 10 are from Balrampur district, eight from Gonda district and four of a family from Gorakhpur, they said.
District Magistrate of Balrampur Arvind Singh said 12 devotees from the district had gone on a pilgrimage to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu.
Terrorists opened fire at a bus carrying pilgrims in Reasi district on Sunday, killing nine and injuring several. The 53-seater bus, on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to Katra, veered off the road following the barrage of gunfire and fell into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area.
Ruby and Anurag Verma, both children, from Kandhbhari village died while 10 were injured and have been admitted to hospitals in Jammu, the Balrampur district magistrate said, adding the sub-divisional magistrates of Uttaraula and Balrampur have been instructed to contact the affected families and provide them help.
Gonda District Magistrate Neha Sharma said eight members of a family from the district were also injured in the terrorist attack. All of them have been evacuated by the relief and rescue team and admitted to hospitals, she added.
Sharma said she has spoken to the family members of the survivors and assured them of all possible help from the administration. “We are keeping an eye on the situation. Some of the devotees were injured after being shot at while many suffered serious injuries as the bus fell into the gorge,” she said.
“Some of the injured devotees had to undergo surgery. A magistrate and a deputy SP-rank police officer from the district are being sent to Jammu to help the victims,” the Gonda DM said.
Suryanath Gupta, a resident of Bhikharipur village, said eight members of his family had left for Jammu on June 4 to offer prayers at the Vaishno Devi shrine. While one of his family members has been admitted to the government hospital in Katra, the rest have been admitted to a hospital in Jammu, he said.
Those injured in the terrorist attack also included four pilgrims from a family from Gorakhpur.
Seventeen family members from Gorakhpur had embarked on the pilgrimage. Two of the injured are residents of Purdilpur Kali Mandir Gali, while the other two are from Bhairopur in the Kuraghat area.
Gautam Gupta (District Disaster Expert-District Disaster Management Authority, Gorakhpur) confirmed the incident.
He said the injured are receiving treatment in a local hospital and are reported to be in stable condition. The district administration is providing necessary assistance to the victims and their families, the official said.
Gupta added the family had split into two groups, with 13 members staying in Katra and four heading to the Shiv Khori pilgrimage site. It was during this journey that the terrorist attack took place.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a statement issued by the party, strongly condemned the attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir and said the incident occurred at a politically very sensitive time in the country.
The news of people getting killed in the terrorist attack due to the “negligence” of the security management is sad and highly condemnable, the SP statement said.
The government should wake up and send the bodies to the families and at the same time provide the best possible treatment to the injured as well as proper compensation to all the casualties, the Samajwadi Party chief said.
Press Trust of India
