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‘Assailant shot Shubham in the head, right in front of me’: Bizman’s wife recounts horror
Ashanya, 27, and Shubham, 30, had tied the knot on February 12 this year. This was their first trip together after marriage. They were in Baisaran Valley, popularly known as ‘Mini Switzerland’, when terrorists opened fire at tourists around eateries
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KANPUR What began as a family vacation in J&K turned into a nightmare for a newly married couple from Kanpur, when a terrorist shot Shubham Dwivedi, 30, in the head, in front of his wife Ashanya, 27, after twice asking, “Are you Hindu or Muslim?”
Businessman Shubham and Ashanya had tied the knot on February 12 this year. This was their first trip together after marriage — a family holiday to celebrate the new chapter of life. They were in Baisaran Valley, popularly known as ‘Mini Switzerland’, when terrorists opened fire at tourists around eateries.
“We had just got off the horses near the hilltop and were walking while Shubham was sitting with his sister Shambhavi. A man came up and asked, ‘Are you Hindu or Muslim?’ None of us understood what he meant — we thought maybe he was joking,” Ashanya said on phone recounting the horror.
“He asked again...we were all still trying to make sense of it and began laughing, thinking it was a joke. I said, ‘Bhaiya, we are not Muslims’. And then, right in front of me, he pulled out a gun and shot Shubham in the head,” she lamented.
The family had reached Pahalgam on April 17 morning. Shubham’s parents, Sanjay Dwivedi, 52, a cement trader, and Seema Dwivedi, 50, were standing near the entrance of the site, while Ashanya had just walked up to her husband moments before the shooting. Shambhavi, Shubham’s younger sister, was seated beside him when the bullet struck.
“I screamed...tried to reach him, but Mummy-Papa pulled me back. Suddenly, gunfire started from all directions. When we returned, soldiers had arrived. Shubham was lying there. Gone,” added Ashanya.
She said: “He could’ve killed me too. But they dragged me away. I saw my husband die. We had just started our life.” Security forces arrived within minutes of the shooting and sealed the area.
Shubham Dwivedi, who managed the family’s wholesale business in Kanpur, is the only known civilian from Uttar Pradesh killed in the terror attack. The Dwivedi family, originally from Hathipur in Maharajpur, now resides in Shyam Nagar, Kanpur.
Preparations are on to bring Shubham’s body home for cremation. Political leaders across party lines have condemned the attack, calling it a “brutal assault” on humanity.
