R Thirumani arrived in a coffin from Delhi via an

Indigo Airlines

flight

Rajavel, father of victim Thirumani

Rajavel, father of victim

CHENNAI: Rajavel suspected nothing when he spotted a group of 30-40 men standing a few metres away by the roadside as the bus carrying his family and other tourists went past Narbal on Srinagar-Gulmarg road on Monday.“It started all of a sudden. Stones started hitting all four buses carrying the tourists. There was very little time to react. Some of us yelled at other passengers to duck and take cover. Only my son, who had earphones plugged in, didn’t hear me,” Rajavel told TOI.Rajavel’s 22-year-old son, R Thirumani Selvan , arrived in a coffin from Delhi via Indigo Airlines flight 6E-2315 late on Tuesday evening.Immersed in music when the stones were being pelted, Selvan didn’t hear his father shout. He took a hit on the right side of his head. Doctors at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences couldn’t save him.“I was sat in the row to his front. I yelled at him to duck. He had earphones on and didn’t understand why there was this sudden commotion inside the bus,” Rajavel told TOI.Selvan, who was employed with Accenture in Sholinganallur , was sitting by the window. When he finally came around to understanding what was was going on, it was too late. A piece of hard rock came crashing through the window and struck him fatally. Rajavel’s wife Selvi was also injured in the incident. “She got four sutures on the side of her head. But her injuries were not life threatening,” said Rajavel who escaped unhurt along with his daughter.Read this story in Bengali