Inside a small room of a single-storey house, Pushpa Devi sobs beside the body of her 43-year-old son Special Police Officer (SPO) Kulwant Singh. Devi is yet to inform her daughter-in-law about her husband's fate.
"She is in Jammu and does not know about the incident. How do I tell her that her husband is no more," says Devi as her eyes well up again.
SPO Kulwant Singh was among the three cops who were abducted and shot dead by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujhadeen terrorists in the twin villages of Kapran and Batagund in South Kashmir's Shopian district on Friday morning.
When the Hindu community migrated to Jammu at the onset of militancy in 1990, Special Police Officer (SPO) Kulwant Singh's family decided to stay put in this village. Singh's is the only Rajput family living alongside Muslim neighbours.
"My son told them (the terrorists) that by afternoon, I will resign and show you my resignation letter," says Devi, "But they did not listen and took him away. I went outside and knocked on the shutter of a local baker (for help). By the time I returned, they had taken my son away."
Terrorists may have killed Singh, but they failed to break the amity between the lone Hindu family and their neighbours. The women surrounded Devi to console her and her grandson.
Outside, the Muslim men were busy cutting wood for Singh's pyre. "We have been living together for ages. We are one family," said one of the neighbours.
Just 100 meters away, the family of follower Firdous Ahmad Kuchay is unable to come to terms with the tragedy. Kuchay's three-year-old son Aman is busy playing with other children, unmindful of the tragedy. He does not realize that the stream of people flowing into his home are mourners, not guests
"He is the eldest of Firdous's two children," says Mohammad Ramzan, Kuchay's maternal uncle, trying to talk over the innocent shrieks of the children. "He has a one-and-half-year-old daughter who is still nursing. I pleaded before them (terrorists) and told them to spare him and kill me instead because he has two kids and old parents to take care of. But they did not listen."
Half a kilometre away in Kapran village, 70-year-old Saida is inconsolable. Terrorists abducted and killed her only son, selection grade constable Nissar Ahmad Dhobi, as he was readying for morning namaz. "He was in the washroom, perform the required ablutions for prayers when they barged in," she says says amid sobs and wails.
Posted in Srinagar, Nissar had come home on Thursday evening to take his mother to the doctor. "They came in the morning and asked him to come along. We resisted a lot. His wife pleaded but they hit her with sticks. We begged and followed them to another village. Half-an-hour later, we heard gunshots and he was dead," says Bashir Ahmad Dhobi, a cousin.
Nissar had recently been transferred from Reasi in Jammu and was part of the security detail of an important officer in Srinagar. The 44-year-old had served in the police department for 23 years and is survived by his wife, son and daughter and parents.
Cop Casualty
More than 37 policemen have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year, the highest casualty figure in 12 years
Sept 21: 3 killed in Shopian district
Aug 22: 3 cops, including an inspector, slain in Pulwama and Kulgam districts on Eid
Aug 29: Four policemen killed in terrorist attack in Shopian
What are SPOs
Special Police Officers are casual employees of the Police department, who work on a monthly consolidated salary of Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000.
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