"Mei kya ous khatah (what was my fault)," wailed the inconsolable mother of a special police officer and his brother killed by militants as their bodies were brought home in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Sunday.
A large number of people assembled at their home in Chadbugh locality and bid a tearful adieu to the brothers.
"What was my fault? What was my fault?" the grieving mother asked as women tried to console her.
"They should have shot me in the heart... Where will I find my sons now?" she said.
Militants on Saturday shot dead SPO Ishfaq Ahmad near his home.
In the firing, Ahmad's brother Umar Jan also received bullet injuries. Jan was taken to the SKIMS Hospital in Bemina where he succumbed on Sunday morning.
Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed in Chadbugh as the bodies reached their residence. Men and women -- old and young alike -- could not control their tears and wailed.
Women showered flowers and toffees on the coffins of the two as they were taken on their final journey and laid to rest at their ancestral graveyard.
Top police officials, including Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar, visited their residence and expressed condolences to the family.
Kumar said the entire police family stood with the bereaved family, according to a tweet by the Kashmir Zone Police.
Earlier, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the District Police Lines in Budgam for the slain SPO where the deputy commissioner and the senior superintendent of police led police personnel in paying floral tributes to him.
Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, while expressing condolences to the family, said death and destruction have become a norm in Kashmir Valley.
"In Kashmir we watch helplessly as young lives are snuffed out. Death & destruction have become the norm. Sadly GOI doesn't seem to care since Kashmiri lives have little value for them. Deepest condolences to the family," she wrote on Twitter.
Condemning the killings, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami termed it heinous and barbaric, and demanded that perpetrators be identified and brought to book.
"It has sent shock waves into the whole region and everyone is pained and grieved," he said.
