A shock WhatsApp for Amritsar rail mishap victim’s dad

A WhatsApp message on Vijay Kumar’s mobile phone left him completely devastated. It was an image of his son’s head severed from the body lying near the railway tracks.

Kumar had been frantically looking for his 18-year old son Manish after he went missing on Dasara night when a speeding train mowed down at least 61 revellers in Amritsar. Manish would often send his selfies on his father’s WhatsApp number. But this time, it was the shocking image, which someone had posted, after spotting it along the railway tracks.

The father’s ordeal had just begun. He did not know where his son’s head and body were. For hours, Kumar kept moving from one hospital to another, showing staffers the image.

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Manish’s head was finally located in one hospital. Then began the search for the body. Among the bodies that came to mortuaries was one that was headless with a black tee shirt. Kumar had finally found the two parts of his son’s body. He cried as the two body parts were joined for the last rituals.

Manish was a Class XII student in a local school and had dressed up in his favourite black attire for the festival.

Kumar’s younger son Aashish was lucky. He returned before Ravana was set on fire. The train tragedy left behind an inconceivable trail of destruction. For a UP family living at a walking distance from the accident site, not many in the family are left to even mourn the deaths.

This family lost seven of its members in the train accident.

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