No closure till Pahalgam guilty hunted down: Behala widow

Time of India

21-05-2025

Kolkata: It has been exactly a month since 51-year-old
lost her husband, senior statistician
, in the terrorist attack at Baisaran Valley. However, Guha is still far from finding closure.
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"What has been snatched away from us will never come back. My daughter has lost the man she saw as her role model. I have lost the man around whom my life revolved. But the closure is still far away. A lot has happened since then. India launched Operation Sindoor. The tensions between both countries and the war that followed are now chronicled. The govt responded as required. But there is still no update on my husband's killers.
I do not know if they were captured or whether they are alive. We want those men to be punished. That will bring some solace," said Guha.
This one month, says Guha, has changed her role within the family, especially concerning her daughter. "I was a homemaker. I never had to think of managing house loans before. Neither did I need to plan for my daughter's future. Samir used to manage them effortlessly. But now these roles have been thrust on me," recalled Guha.
Her daughter, Subhangi, is also trying to concentrate on her future. Having performed well in her class XII board exams, she has even started collecting her college admission forms. Her first preference is to study psychology at Loreto College, she has told her family and former schoolteachers.
The family had just reached Baisaran Valley and was clicking photographs on April 22 when Samir, a central govt employee, heard gunshots.
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One of the terrorists came and separated the Muslims from the Hindus and ordered everyone to recite the Kalima. "We were lying down when suddenly a terrorist shot my husband. After killing him, the terrorist – dressed in a military outfit and with faces covered – said to another, 'Yeh Modi ka Aadmi Hai," recounted the mother of 17-year-old Subhangi.
"I now want action on the killers. It is for the central govt to decide how to go about it.
I am hopeful since they have been identified. But I want the culprits punished, and I want a permanent solution so that no one faces the fate of my husband or the 25 others who lost their lives there," she said.
Guha said she followed details of the conflict daily. "While the talk revolved mostly around drone warfare and how many targets we were hitting, I wanted to know the names and the roles of the terrorists killed during our befitting reply," said Guha.
Earlier, speaking to TOI on the day Operation Sindoor was launched, Guha said, "This was a targeted killing. In any terror attack, there is random firing. It was not done here. If we are not safe in our own country, where will we find security?" she asked.
The family said they also received Rs 10 lakh from the central govt, another Rs 10.2 lakh from insuranceand another Rs 10 lakh from the state govt as compensation so far.