Kanpur: Shubham Dwivedi 's sky-blue shirt wrapped his wife Aishanya in an embrace of love and memories Thursday as she stood in front of his coffin with a faraway look.
The shirt has been Aishanya's second skin since Shubham, 31, fell to terrorist bullets in Pahalgam Tuesday. It wasn't until the Kanpur native's funeral procession left his home that the young woman took off the shirt and held it to her face, crying inconsolably.
As dusk fell and the tears dried up, the cotton shirt remained neatly folded on Aishanya's lap. Shubham, a businessman, and Aishanya had been married for just over two months. The trip to Kashmir was going as planned until the first gunshots rang out through the expanse of the Baisaran meadow.
"We had just ordered Maggi. Shubham and I sat on the grass, while dad was in the washroom," Aishanya, 27, recounted. "A man called out from behind us and asked, 'Are you a Hindu or Muslim? If you are a Muslim, read the Kalma'. I addressed him as 'bhaiya' and enquired why he wanted to know who we were. He repeated the question to me, at which I identified myself as a Hindu. He immediately shot Shubham in the head."
When CM Yogi Adityanath visited Shubham's home, Aishanya demanded "a befitting reply" to the perpetrators of the carnage. Yogi promised India wouldn't forgive and forget. "The terrorists, their handlers will be punished for the barbarity inflicted upon Hindu women, stripping them of their 'sindoor' in an act of inhuman cruelty. There should be no doubt about this," he said.
Hundreds converged on Dydhi Ghat on the banks of the Ganga for Shubham's last rites. People climbed the terraces of houses along the route through which the procession wound its way. Many of the mourners held placards saying "Stop terrorism". Markets in Kanpur were shut through the day to protest the killings.
The shirt has been Aishanya's second skin since Shubham, 31, fell to terrorist bullets in Pahalgam Tuesday. It wasn't until the Kanpur native's funeral procession left his home that the young woman took off the shirt and held it to her face, crying inconsolably.
As dusk fell and the tears dried up, the cotton shirt remained neatly folded on Aishanya's lap. Shubham, a businessman, and Aishanya had been married for just over two months. The trip to Kashmir was going as planned until the first gunshots rang out through the expanse of the Baisaran meadow.
"We had just ordered Maggi. Shubham and I sat on the grass, while dad was in the washroom," Aishanya, 27, recounted. "A man called out from behind us and asked, 'Are you a Hindu or Muslim? If you are a Muslim, read the Kalma'. I addressed him as 'bhaiya' and enquired why he wanted to know who we were. He repeated the question to me, at which I identified myself as a Hindu. He immediately shot Shubham in the head."
When CM Yogi Adityanath visited Shubham's home, Aishanya demanded "a befitting reply" to the perpetrators of the carnage. Yogi promised India wouldn't forgive and forget. "The terrorists, their handlers will be punished for the barbarity inflicted upon Hindu women, stripping them of their 'sindoor' in an act of inhuman cruelty. There should be no doubt about this," he said.
Hundreds converged on Dydhi Ghat on the banks of the Ganga for Shubham's last rites. People climbed the terraces of houses along the route through which the procession wound its way. Many of the mourners held placards saying "Stop terrorism". Markets in Kanpur were shut through the day to protest the killings.
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