India, Dec. 3 -- Devendra Prasad still cannot bring himself to step inside the small room wherein his three younger children kept their schoolbags every afternoon. Their water bottles, books and neatly folded uniforms remain untouched, as if waiting for the routine of one more weekday to unfold. Instead, the 40-year-old father now spends most of his time outside his laundry shop in Hinjewadi, staring blankly at the footpath where his children lost their lives on Monday.

"They were simply walking home. It wasn't their mistake. Why were they crushed?" he asks, his voice breaking each time he repeats that question.

Devendra's three children - Suraj (6), Archana (9) and Priya (16) - were returning from their Zilla Parishad school when a com...