'Won't have let him go had I known he won't return alive'

After he woke up early in the morning today, Sunil Sabarwal told his wife that he would return home for lunch and then they would all go to Jammu to buy new clothes for their only son, who will be celebrating his second birthday in a week's time.
But little did the 30-year-old Sunil know that he would not be able to make that trip to buy clothes for his son, Praful.
"Had I known you won't return alive, I would not have let you go to the fields today," wailed a disconsolate Meena, Sunil's wife, after her husband fell victim to terrorists' bullets when they carried out their attack in the Arnia sector of Jammu today.

Sunil had gone to attend to his crops at Alah village in Arnia sector along the International Border when militants fired at him.
Meena's kin had to hold her back from banging her head on the ground in sorrow even while she fainted many times while waiting outside the mortuary of the Government Medical College and Hospital here.
Just a few steps away from the gate of the mortuary stood an elderly figure, Thoru Ram, the father of the deceased and a retired officer of Border Security Force.

"It was time for me to go, the hands of destiny have taken you away from us. The people who took you away from us must rot in the fire of hell," cried Ram.

Bani Ram, a relative, said that Kanta Devi, Sunil's mother, had suffered a massive heart attack a few months back and was yet to be told about the death of her son.
"Their family is ruined. Doctors had advised against any stress to her (Kanta Devi), but now how will she live when she comes to know about the death of her son," said Bani Ram.
Another relative, Sandhya Devi, said that the family had been getting ready to celebrate the second birthday of their only son, but now the joyous mood had turned into one of mourning.
"Before going to the fields, he (Sunil) called me and asked me to attend the birthday celebrations of his son, but little did we know that the terrorist would convert the festivity into mourning," she said.

In a terror strike on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu Division, militants wearing combat uniform today attacked two Army bunkers close to Indo-Pak border, leaving 10 people, including three civilians and as many army men, dead in a fierce gun battle with security forces.