He was under a hail of bullets after militants took over his group’s jeep. It was destiny that saved him, says a Dayala Chak terrorist attack survivor recuperating at Government Medical College here.
He was one of five members of Radha Soami Satsang, Beas, who had come to the sect’s Najwal campus, 20 kilometres from here.
At 4.55am on Friday, on their way to Beas for a religious ceremony, they ran into terrorists in army uniform, who were holed up under a bridge on the national highway at Dayala Chak village, 55 km from here in Kathua district.
The militants flagged down their Mahindra Bolero jeep and, except the driver, got everyone off. As four Radha Soamis lay down on the ground nearby as ordered, they were sprayed with bullets.
“We lay down helpless, as they left the four of us for dead and took our driver along,” recalls survivor Kamaljit (33) of Villa Baju village in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, thanking destiny for survival and recalling that the terrorists conversed in Hindi.
Fellow passenger Jeet Ram was killed on the spot and Kamaljit’s other two companions took bullets in the chest, legs and arms. Kamaljit managed to grab the mobile phone of his friend and make a distress call to a Satsang centre.
{{/usCountry}}Fellow passenger Jeet Ram was killed on the spot and Kamaljit’s other two companions took bullets in the chest, legs and arms. Kamaljit managed to grab the mobile phone of his friend and make a distress call to a Satsang centre.
{{/usCountry}}Police responded to the call and moved them to the Hiranagar hospital, from where the injured were referred to Government Medical College here.
Injured Saheb Singh (50) was taken into the operating theatre to removed bullets from his chest and arms. His condition was critical.
Injured Gurjit Singh (35), who lay beside Kamaljit during the attack, had been shot in the arms and thighs, but was out of danger. Kamaljit was lucky to escape with a wound in the right leg.