Chandigarh/Kochi/Kanpur, Apr 23: A fun trip that turned to tragedy in the flash of an eye – or at the lightning speed of a bullet. On Wednesday, distraught family members of the 26 men gunned down by terrorists in Pahalgam struggled to come to terms with their devastating loss.
Many also demanded capital punishment for the perpetrators of the attack.
The bodies of the 26 victims were brought on Wednesday in coffins to Srinagar, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah laid wreaths, before they were being brought back home.
There was hardly a dry eye as Indian Navy officer Vinay Narwal’s wife Himanshi bid adieu to him embracing his coffin wrapped in the tricolour. Narwal got married to Himanshi on April 16 and was on his honeymoon trip to Pahalgam. But terrorists killed him in cold blood in front of his wife.
The 26-year-old, a native of Haryana, had been serving at the Southern Naval Command in Kochi for the past one and a half years after joining the Navy in 2022.
Indian Air Force Corporal Tage Hailyang, hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, was also visiting Pahalgam with his wife but lost his life in the attack.
Shubham Dwivedi, a 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur, got married just two months ago on February 12. On Tuesday, the Dwivedi household was immersed in grief after Shubham was gunned down right in front of his wife.
He had gone to Kashmir on a week-long vacation on April 16 with his wife and nine other family members.
According to Manoj Dwivedi, Shubham’s uncle living next-door in Kanpur, the newly-wed couple decided to go horse riding around noon on Tuesday while the rest of the family hung out near their hotel.
Indore’s Sushil Nathaniel (58) had gone to Jammu and Kashmir with his wife, daughter and son to celebrate Easter.
His cousin Sanjay Kumrawat told PTI, “We have spoken to his wife and son over the phone. They told us that the terrorists asked Sushil’s name and forced him to kneel down, then asked him to recite the Kalma (phrase articulating Islamic faith). When Sushil said that he could not recite Kalma, the terrorists shot him.”
When Nathaniel’s daughter Akanksha (35) ran towards him after seeing bullets fired at him, the terrorists shot her in the leg, Kumrawat said.
Friends and acquaintances of three residents of Dombivli city in Thane – Hemant Joshi, Sanjay Lele and Atul Mone – were in a state of shock and said they were at a loss of words to describe their pain and anguish over their deaths.
Neeraj Udhwani was working as a chartered accountant in Dubai and was on a visit to his hometown Jaipur for a wedding function. He went to Pahalgam with his wife Ayushi.
Neeraj’s mother Jyoti has demanded capital punishment for those involved in the attack.
“The terrorists should be hanged… India has close relations with everyone. A Hindu will never do such an act,” she said.
Bharath Bhushan from Bengaluru, who was visiting Pahalgam with his wife Sujatha and three-year-old son, was among those shot dead by terrorists.
Sujatha’s mother Vimla said the shooting happened right in front of her daughter, adding once Sujatha realised her husband was dead, she picked up his identity cards and fled the scene with her son.
In Shivamogga, Roopa, sister of Manjunath Rao – another victim of the attack-said this was the family’s first trip outside the state for a holiday.
According to her, a friend of Manjunath called around 4.30 pm. to inform her that he had been hospitalised. “But we came to know of his death through the news,” she said.
“This was their first trip to Kashmir. They had holidays, so they went. They had called their mother to say they were safe and would return on April 24,” Roopa said.
Kochi’s Edapally native Ramachandran’s love for travel, a passion shared by his wife, ended in tragedy when he was gunned down in front of his daughter who had come down from Dubai to meet her parents.
Ramachandran (65) travelled to Kashmir with his wife, daughter and grandchildren for holidaying.
Neighbours remembered JC Chandra Mouli, a retired bank employee from Visakhapatnam, as a friendly and sociable person. (PTI)
