Slain Odisha tourist saved for months for Kashmir trip, brother says
Bhubaneswar: Forty-one-year-old Prashant Satpathy, who was gunned down by terrorists in front of his wife and nine-year-old son in Baisaran meadow, had saved money for months for their Kashmir trip and was really excited for it, his family said Wednesday.
Upon hearing the news of her son’s death, Satpathy’s mother has turned mute due to shock, his elder brother Sushant said.
“Prashant had saved money for months for the trip and was really excited for it,” he said.
An accounts assistant with the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) in Odisha’s Balasore district, Prashant had gone to Kashmir with his wife and son on LTC.
“Prashant was shot in the head while we were alighting from a ropeway in Baisaran… he collapsed on the spot. The army came an hour later,” his wife Priya Darshani Achariya told an Odia news channel from Jammu and Kashmir.
She, along with her son Tanuj Kumar Satpathy and three of Prashant’s relatives who rushed to Srinagar after hearing about the attack, would accompany the body, which is expected to arrive in Bhubaneswar Wednesday night.
A dark cloud of despair hovered over Ishani village in Remuna block in Balasore district as locals and politicians made a beeline for the residence of Satpathy to express condolences to his family.
As per the direction of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Odisha’s Resident Commissioner in Delhi is coordinating the arrangements for the return of the body, an official said.
Locals were waiting for Satpathy’s body to arrive in the village to pay their last respects.
His family said they were making arrangements for conducting the final rites Thursday, and Odisha government representatives were expected to attend it.
Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, who was in Jammu and Kashmir to attend a meeting, reached out to Prashant’s family and consoled his wife and son.
Though terrorists mostly killed men, an Odia woman staying in Karnataka, identified as 65-year-old Sashi Kumari, was also injured in the attack. She was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College in Anantnag.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC), in its political affairs committee meeting, observed a one-minute silence and prayed for the departed souls, while offering condolences to the victims’ families.
While condemning the incident, Hindu Jagaran Manch has planned to organise a memorial meeting for the victims in Bhubaneswar Wednesday evening.
Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, Chief Minister Majhi, Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik, senior Congress leader Srikant Jena and many dignitaries have strongly condemned the attack.
PTI
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