‘Proud of my brothers in armed forces’: Gujarat woman who lost husband, son in Pahalgam attack

Kajal Parmar, wife of Yatishbhai Parmar and mother to 17-year-old son Smit Parmar who were killed in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, thanked PM Modi

Updated on: May 7, 2025, 12:29:38 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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Ahmedabad: “I’m proud of my brothers in the armed forces, who feel the pain and sorrow of their sisters’ sindoor being wiped away in this tragedy and are driven to fight for justice,” said Kajal Parmar, the wife of Yatishbhai Parmar and mother of 17-year-old Smit Parmar, both of whom were killed in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

The Parmar family was part of a 19-member tourist group from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, that had attended a Ram Katha by Morari Bapu in Srinagar before visiting Pahalgam

Speaking to the media after India carried out precision strikes at multiple terror sites in Pakistan early Wednesday, Kajal said that the attack not just took away her husband and son but the lives and dreams of several families—fathers, mothers, children—leaving a nation in grief.

“I’m so grateful for Operation Sindoor and to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking swift action. They took my family, but they will not escape justice. We want these terrorists wiped off the face of the earth,” she added.

In an operation named ‘Sindoor’, Indian armed forces conducted strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the early hours of Wednesday, the defence ministry said.

India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a release that nine sites were targeted in the military strikes in Pakistan. “These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered. We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable. There will be detailed briefing on ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, later today,” the release read.

Also read:Father, son from Gujarat’s Bhavnagar killed in Pahalgam terror attack

Kajal, who escaped the Pahalgam attack because her nephew pulled her to safety, recalled, “It was over in five minutes. I saw it with my own eyes—they asked about our religion before starting to shoot us. Had it not been for my nephew, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

Also Read: Indian armed forces hit terror targets in Pakistan in late-night military strikes: ‘Justice is served’

The Parmar family was part of a 19-member tourist group from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, that had attended a Ram Katha by Morari Bapu in Srinagar before visiting Pahalgam, 90 kilometers away. Sixteen in the group were unharmed, while Vinodbhai Dabhi, another Bhavnagar resident, suffered a bullet graze to his arm. Yatishbhai and Smit were listed as missing on April 22, with their deaths confirmed the next day.

“Modi Saheb has shown patience, but this time they’ve gone too far. He can’t see us in this pain,” Kajal added.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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