Thousands gathered on Tuesday to pay tributes to the victims of the Rajouri terror attack at the cremation ground in Dangri village where the last rites of six civilians were held.
According to local reports, besides hundreds of people, top police officials, including ADGP Jammu Mukesh Singh, attended the ceremony.
Some local people took out a procession, raising slogans as they gathered at the cremation ground for the last rites. This comes as a Kashmir Pandits’ organisation and the Jammu West Assembly Movement sought "war" to retaliate against Pakistan for the attacks.
"There is no other way than war to stop this massacre," said one of the members of Kashmiri Pandit’s organisation. Another protestor from Jammu West Assembly Movement said, "We urge the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Deference Minister to declare war against Pakistan. The first two days of the year have been blemished by the bloodstains of innocents. No one feels safe here. Until PM Modi takes a concrete step to change this situation, we won’t stop."
Meanwhile, one of the victims, 23-year-old Deepak Kumar, who was killed in terror attacks on the minority community in Jammu and Kashmir's Dhangri village on Sunday was about to join the Indian Army's ordnance department.
Deepak, the son of an employee of the public health engineering department, worked hard and qualified for the army job. He was supposed to join the army's ordnance department in two days.
Four civilians, including Deepak, were killed and six others injured when terrorists opened fire on three houses of the minority community in the village in the border district of Rajouri Sunday evening, officials had said.
"Food was being prepared when terrorists entered another victim Pritam Sharma's house. They verified his name through Aadhaar card and then resorted to indiscriminate firing," said Ranjeet Tara, a resident of Dhangri and Pritam's neighbour.
This was the first house that became the target of the terrorists, he said, adding that he was the first to visit the house after the attack to ferry the injured to the hospital. "The food is still on plates. Blood stains have dried. The terrorists targeted the minority community in Rajouri to force their migration," Tara said while showing the bullets still lying in the house.
On Sunday at around 7 pm, two terrorists appeared in a house in Devi Ka Naka of Dhangri and resorted to firing in which two brothers got injured. Later, one of the injured, Deepak Kumar, succumbed, eyewitnesses said.
The terrorists then moved to another house located around 200 metres away and again resorted to firing in which Pritam Sharma and his son were killed, they said.
Continuing their attacks, the militants then moved towards a house located at around 300 metres away and fired in which ex-serviceman Satish Kumar died while his wife, a daughter, a son, a brother and a neighbour got injured, the eyewitnesses said.
As the terrorists were going from one house to another to target minority community members, one villager Bal Krishen came out with the gun of a village defence committee (VDC) member and started firing in the open.
"Only after Bal Krishen resorted to firing with a VDC gun that the terrorists fled the area," former MLC Vibood Gupta said.
The terrorists, presuming that the firing was done by security forces, escaped from the scene, Gupta said.
Irate over the attacks, victims' relatives and other villagers protested at Dhangri Chowk with the bodies when they received them from the GMC hospital.
Army and police put the area in cordon throughout the night.
(With inputs from PTI)
