Unfazed by shots being fired, 21-year-old Saurav Gupta, who was on the bus in Jammu that came under a terror attack, took it upon himself to raise an alarm but was felled by a bullet just then which pierced the back of his neck.
Saurav was among the nine pilgrims killed in the Sunday terror attack on a bus in Jammu’s Reasi.
His body was brought to Delhi in an ambulance by his father Kuldeep Gupta and other family members. He was cremated near his house in northeast Delhi’s Mandoli area on Tuesday.
Saurav had gone to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu with his wife Shivani Gupta to pray for a baby. The couple, which had been married for two years, was scheduled to return home later the same day.
“She saw her husband die in front of her eyes. She was inconsolable,” Manoj Gupta, Saurav’s uncle, told PTI.
According to him, Sourav was a brave man with a strong build and 6-ft height.
“He was sitting behind the driver in a window seat when the terrorists attacked their bus. As soon the firing began, he raised an alarm but was shot,” Manoj Gupta said.
The bullet hit him in the back of his neck since he was sitting by the window.
“His wife Shivani Gupta escaped unhurt in the attack but suffered fractures in legs and face when the bus fell into a gorge,” Manoj Gupta said.
“Shivani had even made a video call to her grandmother-in-law from the bus just before the attack to show her the scenic view,” he said. Shivani is currently under treatment at Shanti Niketan Nursing Home near the couple’s house.
Saurav, who lost his mother at the age of three, is survived by his wife, father, who works in an export house, and a younger brother, who is studying in a college.
Saurav too used to work in an export house in the Gandhi Nagar area.
His uncle said the couple had gone to the Vaishno Devi shrine last week and on June 9, the two decided to go to the Shiv Khori temple on a bus.
“Indian Army must give a fitting reply to the terrorists responsible for the attack,” he said.
Nine people were killed and 41 injured as the terrorists opened fire at a 53-seater bus, which was on its way from the Shiv Khori temple to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra Sunday evening.
The bus veered off the road and fell into a deep gorge near the Teryath village of the Poni area of Reasi. PTI