Nine kids dead in school van mishap, grief runs through 3 UP villages

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Kushinagar, April 26

The agonising screams of the aggrieved mother rent the village air. Some of those who have gathered console her, others stand stunned at the unfolding tragedy as three tiny bodies wrapped in shroud are unloaded on verandah at Mishrauli village.

The family lost its all three children in the Kushinagar van accident on Thursday morning.

Read: 13 children killed as train hits school van in UPs Kushinagar

The three were among 13 children who were killed when a train rammed into their school van at an unmanned railway crossing in Kushinagar.

The women of the village, fighting their tears, try to hold back the wailing mother who attempts to bang her head against the wall.

They were the children of former Dalit gram pradhan of Mishrauli village, Amarjit.

At Maiharwa village, three families have lost four children amongst them. 

Eight-year-old Miraj and her sister Muskan (7) were children of Mainuddin, who were aboard the ill-fated school van. The family is too shocked to react. The crying father repeatedly recalls how they packed school bags, kept tiffin boxes and the children happily left for school.

From the same village, Zahir lost his nine-year-old son Arshad and Nazir his son Anas (8).

A resident of Batrauli Dhurkhadwa village, Hasan has lost two daughters Tamanna (8) and Sajida (10) in the accident.

Had the village government school been good enough he would not have sent his daughters to study outside, laments Hasan.