A family vacation to the scenic Baisaran valley of Pahalgam turned into a nightmare for 40-year-old Florida-based software engineer Bitan Adhikary and his family when he was shot dead at point-blank range after being asked his religion by terrorists. His widow, Sohini Adhikary (37), recounted the horror with tear-filled eyes, struggling to accept the shattering reality that the man who had lovingly planned the trip was now gone forever.
On the afternoon of April 22, Bitan, who hailed from Kolkata and worked for an Indian IT multinational in Brandon, Florida, was among three people from the state killed in a brutal terror attack in Pahalgam a popular tourist destination dubbed ‘Mini Switzerland’. The attack was carried out by armed terrorists believed to be affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF).
“They stopped us and asked my husband whether he was Hindu or Muslim,” said Sohini during a telephonic conversation, her voice trembling as she relived the horrifying moment. “He didn’t respond initially. Then, one of them pointed a gun at his chest and asked him to recite the Kalma.”
“My husband didn’t know the Kalma. He admitted he was a Hindu. That is when they shot him,” she said. “He fell right there on the grass. I just sat next to him, clutching my son Hridaan, watching him die… and the gunmen walked away to stop another couple.”
Bitan had meticulously planned the Kashmir trip as a surprise during his annual visit to Kolkata, arriving on April 8 to celebrate Bengali New Year. On April 16, he left for Kashmir with Sohini and their son Hridaan for an eight-day vacation. They were scheduled to return to Kolkata on Thursday.
“Baisaran was one of the top priorities on our trip,” Sohini recalled. “We were playing with Hridaan in the meadows, taking selfies. Then suddenly, we heard gunshots. We got up and started running… but they stopped us.”
After the attack, the Indian Army and local security personnel evacuated the survivors and rushed them to safety. Bitan’s body was taken to Srinagar General Hospital, where a post-mortem was conducted. Sohini and her son boarded a flight to Delhi the next morning, carrying Bitan’s body, and then reached Kolkata by evening.
Back in Kolkata, a pall of grief engulfed Bitan’s Sakherbazar home. His elderly parents, Bireshwar Adhikary (87) and Maya Adhikary (75), struggled to comprehend their loss. Both had recently undergone cataract surgeries arranged by their son. Maya, who also has a pacemaker, broke down remembering the moment she learned about the tragedy.
“My husband had turned on the news between an IPL match… and then he screamed,” she said through sobs. “He kept shouting, ‘Look what happened to Bitan!’ He was in the US, before that Venezuela… now he’s in a land he will never return from.”
Bitan’s father, still in shock, kept asking the same question: “What will I tell Hridaan now? Who will take care of him?”
Family members and neighbours gathered to support the grieving parents, relocating them temporarily to a relative’s home in Maitri Sangha Club in Sakherbazar early Wednesday. “It was a traumatic night,” said Shankar Chakraborty, Bitan’s maternal uncle. “The entire extended family is shattered. We are hoping both the state and central governments will step in to support the child and elderly parents.”
The attack has sent shockwaves through Durgapur as well, where Bitan spent his childhood. Among his childhood friends and former schoolmates, there is only disbelief and sorrow, a man who once spoke of dreams and tech innovations had become the target of religious hatred.
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