Hubby killed after religion check but Muslim locals helped us to safety: Pahalgam victim's kin

Time of India

04-05-2025

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Kolkata: Thirteen days have passed since the attack at Baisaran Valley, and the horrific memory of losing her husband,
Samir Guha
, is still fresh.
Sabari Ghosh
, sitting at her Behala Sakherbazar residence on Sunday, blamed
intelligence failure
for the attack, questioning why it took the Indian army close to an hour to reach the spot despite the militant firing indiscriminately for over 25-30 minutes.
"The security forces were stationed 7 km away. Did they not hear the gunshots or get to know that the main gate had been shut by the terrorists?" asked Guha. "For days, it was advertised that Kashmir has become peaceful. If this is what peace is, then what really is the meaning of the word?" she asked. "They crossed the border and carried out such a big incident, claiming so many lives. This cannot happen without an intelligence failure," she added.
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Sabari stated that the terrorists initially separated them and asked them to recite Kalima. "But it was their driver Iqbal who received my daughter's call (made from the phone of another tourist) where she asked for help. By then, my husband was shot, and I broke my leg trying to flee. He arranged a pony rider, came back for us, and then stayed all along with us," she said. "It was he who informed family members about the incident," reminded her brother, Subrata Ghosh.
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"I now want action. It is for the central govt to decide how it wants to respond. But I want the culprits punished, and I want a permanent solution so that no one faces the fate of my husband or 25 others who lost their lives there," she 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.
On Sunday, while sitting at her home in Sakherebazar, Behala, Sabari recounted the events in Pahalgam. She mentioned that her husband, along with her and her daughter Subhangi, arrived in the valley about 20 minutes before the attack. While exploring the area and clicking photos, they suddenly heard gunshots, which continued for a while.
Sabari said, "At first, we didn't realise it was gunfire. My husband asked the locals, and they said the forest department guards fire sometimes to drive away monkeys. But then the firing continued, and when we saw other tourists running, we understood it was an attack. Local people repeatedly told us to lie down to avoid being noticed by the militants. 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 someone 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.
Everything was a blur before we found locals continuously begging us to flee. As we tried to flee, we were left in the lurch with no one around to help even after a long time. As I slipped while fleeing, my daughter Subhangi kept telling me to flee, or the terrorists might kill us too," recounted Sabari.
Sabari said she understands the pain the wife of a BSF jawan who is presently in Pakistani custody is going through. "Only the one who is suffering knows what another person in an identical situation is going through," she said.
The family stated they also received Rs 10 lakh from the central govt, another Rs 10.2 lakh from insurance (another Rs 5-6 lakh of final settlement is still pending), and are awaiting the state govt compensation. "I request the central govt to provide me with my husband's job at the earliest as I have a daughter to look after. He was the only earning member in my family," said Sabari.
Sabari also accused several insurance agents and officials of spreading false claims about them. Sabari and her brother Subrata Ghosh stated that the claim of receiving 1.7 crore rupees as insurance is false. They alleged that this false claim was being spread in collaboration with an insurance agent and some people from the company for publicity. Subrata said, "It is being claimed that this huge amount was settled within three days of the incident. In reality, we received 10.2 lakh rupees." They suspect the involvement of an agent behind this.
Subrata mentioned that within three days of the incident, a person who introduced himself as Debashis Bag, claiming to be an insurance agent, visited their home. Under the pretence of insurance settlement, he took several photos inside the house without the family's knowledge. Later, the person began spreading claims on social media, showing family photos and asserting that 1.7 crore rupees were given by the insurance company. Shabari and her brother claimed that the person also sent these photos to officials at the insurance company's Sarsuna branch.
Subrata said, "The claims being spread are false. However, we don't know if only the agent is involved or if the insurance company is also complicit. We will pursue legal action." The family claimed that despite repeated attempts to contact the accused agent, he did not answer their calls. When Debashis was called for his response, he did not answer the phone or reply to messages.