Meeting two wives and a daughter of the martyrs of Pahalgam
NewsBharati 03-Jun-2025 12:06:21 PM
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After the dreadful day at Pahalgam, many clips are shared on the media, and members of the martyrs' family recounted the horrific experience, the gory details of the day and their feelings too. All these made everyone anxious and enraged to a great extent. Operation Sindoor followed it, and the supporters of the terrorists were brought to justice to some extent. Of course, nothing can compensate for the loss the families suffered for just being a HINDU.
Though the operation offered some solace, meeting the wives of the two martyrs from Pune and the daughter of one martyr created an emotional tempest in the minds of all in the small gathering. Everyone was speechless and caught in the mental whirlwind state by the three women's mere presence. The eyes were moist, emotions choked, and hardly anyone knew how to conduct themselves.
The daughter got up to talk. She is really very brave and described the plight with great control. Her courage made us settle down a little.
All five of them were on one of their pleasure trips, enjoying the oblivion of the attack though they heard the gunshot-like sound. They were told that maybe some beast was sighted, so to scare them the guns were shot. They fell flat on the ground to avoid being hit, but soon the men dressed in the outfit of our soldiers appeared on the scene. They enquired about the religion of the tourists on the spot, and the answer HINDU made them quickly shoot at the two male members of the group. Three bullets were shot at her father from the front and three at her uncle from the backside, they were all together. She said that she would not be able to forget the sight of bullets hitting both of them.
To reach to safety took some 45 minutes, the way was slippery, smooth as well as wet. Her mother told us that her legs were shaking and lost strength but the daughter gave them support as well as courage to climb down safely. On their way back they saw soldiers climb up to the spot.
The valley which they thought resembled Switzerland had turned into a death valley. The wife said still she has nightmares and could see the terrorists walking around her house too.
Despite this, when they expressed their resolve to be fearless Hindus till their death, their strength of mind shook us to the core.
It made me remember many of our brave historical personalities who preferred death to conversion. (Sikh Gurus, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj are the best-known examples, but many unknown and unsung ley people who lost their lives to the horrible and inhuman practice of Inquisition in Goa, all documents destroyed, only a silent witness, hat kataro khambo) They all refused to change the faith, they were Hindus and this was the only crime.
Here there was no option of conversion for the tourists at Pahalgam, they were simply eliminated from the face of the earth because they were Hindus, not Muslims.
The wife of a martyr with a heavy heart narrated that a well-known political leader who visited their family said, there is nothing religious about it. Then she mentioned one more leader who echoed the same sentiment and asked how could they have time to enquire about the religion and then kill them. The pain in her voice and her eyes moved all, tears rolled down many cheeks. The uncontrolled sobs and exclamation of grief could be sensed.
She questioned us that at this juncture could anyone speak a blatant lie to colour the fact. Were small children too fabricating the story? Everyone stated the truth, and the truth was the male members were killed because they were Hindus. They left the women and children to tell the tale and inflicted a wound on their minds and probably on their souls forever. They are condemned to carry it until their last breath.
The second lady, the wife of the second martyr was listening to them quietly, and could not bring herself together to talk about it. Her silence was equally eloquent. Me and my friend had no courage even to face them, so we quietly left. The question remained,
HOW CAN RELIGION BE A BASIS TO KILL INNOCENTS?
The daughter got up to talk. She is really very brave and described the plight with great control. Her courage made us settle down a little.
All five of them were on one of their pleasure trips, enjoying the oblivion of the attack though they heard the gunshot-like sound. They were told that maybe some beast was sighted, so to scare them the guns were shot. They fell flat on the ground to avoid being hit, but soon the men dressed in the outfit of our soldiers appeared on the scene. They enquired about the religion of the tourists on the spot, and the answer HINDU made them quickly shoot at the two male members of the group. Three bullets were shot at her father from the front and three at her uncle from the backside, they were all together. She said that she would not be able to forget the sight of bullets hitting both of them.
To reach to safety took some 45 minutes, the way was slippery, smooth as well as wet. Her mother told us that her legs were shaking and lost strength but the daughter gave them support as well as courage to climb down safely. On their way back they saw soldiers climb up to the spot.
The valley which they thought resembled Switzerland had turned into a death valley. The wife said still she has nightmares and could see the terrorists walking around her house too.
Despite this, when they expressed their resolve to be fearless Hindus till their death, their strength of mind shook us to the core.
It made me remember many of our brave historical personalities who preferred death to conversion. (Sikh Gurus, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj are the best-known examples, but many unknown and unsung ley people who lost their lives to the horrible and inhuman practice of Inquisition in Goa, all documents destroyed, only a silent witness, hat kataro khambo) They all refused to change the faith, they were Hindus and this was the only crime.
Here there was no option of conversion for the tourists at Pahalgam, they were simply eliminated from the face of the earth because they were Hindus, not Muslims.
The wife of a martyr with a heavy heart narrated that a well-known political leader who visited their family said, there is nothing religious about it. Then she mentioned one more leader who echoed the same sentiment and asked how could they have time to enquire about the religion and then kill them. The pain in her voice and her eyes moved all, tears rolled down many cheeks. The uncontrolled sobs and exclamation of grief could be sensed.
She questioned us that at this juncture could anyone speak a blatant lie to colour the fact. Were small children too fabricating the story? Everyone stated the truth, and the truth was the male members were killed because they were Hindus. They left the women and children to tell the tale and inflicted a wound on their minds and probably on their souls forever. They are condemned to carry it until their last breath.
The second lady, the wife of the second martyr was listening to them quietly, and could not bring herself together to talk about it. Her silence was equally eloquent. Me and my friend had no courage even to face them, so we quietly left. The question remained,
HOW CAN RELIGION BE A BASIS TO KILL INNOCENTS?
Prof. Vidya Deshpande
Professor Vidya Deshpande has had a journey of more than four decades in the field of education. Her main expertise is in the subject of Philosophy, and she has worked as a teacher of philosophy and logic with Nowrosjee Wadia college for 36 years. She has been associated with the Janakalyan Blood bank for last for 38 years and has also carried out the responsibility as a management committee member of Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha for 10 years. Her special fields of interest are Philosophy of social sciences, school education, development of skills for self reliance, and top up skills to make students profession ready,