Indian killed in Kabul terror attack consigned to flames in Rajasthan's Jodhpur

Thirty-five-year-old social activist Shipra Sharma had called her mother to inform that she "safely arrived" in Kabul soon after landing in the strife-torn country on Monday.

Minutes later, Sharma was killed in a terror attack when the building where she was staying collapsed after being hit by an RDX-laden truck on January 14.

Her relatives fondly recalled her last phone call to her mother as they consigned her mortal remains to flames in Jodhpur on Friday.

After much efforts from the government, her body was brought to India in an Indian Airline flight on Friday afternoon.

"It was difficult for all of us to bear with this tragic truth, that it was same Shipra sleeping for eternity, who had left home barely a week ago after celebrating New Year with the family," said her maternal uncle Raj Kumar Sharma.

"We all had concerns over her joining Afghanistan Institute for Civil Society (AICS), an NGO, but she dismissed our concerns saying 'why to fear bombs and explosions. Death can descend anywhere'," Raj Kumar Sharma said.

Her mother was dead against her decision but she always wanted to do something different, which hardly anybody could dare to, he added.

Shipra had joined AICS barely three months ago in October and was working as the Director (Certification) in Kabul, responsible for rehabilitation of terror attack victims in Afghanistan.

The building she was staying in has collapsed, the family was informed by the Indian embassy hours after she had left her home here to get on with her professional responsibilities in Kabul, Nagendra Sharma, a family friend, told PTI.

Having worked with four NGOs in Mumbai and Jodhpur, she kept seeking satisfaction with her job profiles which came in when she decided to return to Jodhpur with her son in early 2018. That's when the offer from Afghanistan came and she readily agreed, her uncle told PTI.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot has also expressed his condolences to the family praying for strength to the family in the moments of unbearably grief.

The bomb explosion near the heavily-fortified foreign compound in Kabul killed four people, including Shipra Sharma, and wounded over 100.

Reacting to the blast, the Ministry of External Affairs called for the perpetrators of the assault as well as those who provide them shelter to be brought to justice expeditiously.