India mourns as a fun trip turns into tragedy at the speed of a bullet

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 25 victims were brought on Wednesday in coffins to Srinagar, where 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.

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 vacation on April 16 with his wife and nine other family members. Indore’s Sushil Nathaniel (58) had gone to J&K with his wife, daughter and son to celebrate Easter.

His cousin Sanjay Kumrawat said, “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 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 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. Bharath Bhushan from Bengaluru, who was visiting Pahalgam with his wife Sujatha and three-year-old son, was among those shot by terrorists.

Sujatha’s mother Vimla said the shooting happened right in front of her daughter.

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. 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.

Bereaved family members of two Kolkata men and one person from Purulia of West Bengal are also waiting for the return of their mortal remains.

J & K