State ministers visit bereaved family members of 2 men from city killed in Pahalgam attack

PTI, KOLKATA, APRIL 23, 2025 : Bereaved family members of the two Kolkata men killed in the terror attack near Kashmir's Pahalgam are waiting for the return of their mortal remains. Senior state minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, after visiting the residence of one of the deceased - Samir Guha, at their Behala residence, said that the mortal remains will be brought back to Kolkata.

"I will be there at the airport and all assistance will be provided by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation," Hakim said. Guha of Behala and Bitan Adhikari of Baishnabghata were among the 26 people, mostly tourists, who were killed in the terror attack at Baisaran meadow in south Kashmir on Tuesday.

Ministers Aroop Biswas and Hakim visited the residences of Adhikari and Guha respectively on Wednesday morning and spoke to their family members. Adhikari, who worked in the United States, came home on a holiday and was visiting Kashmir with his wife Sohini and their child, he said.

Biswas said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has spoken to Sohini over the phone and is keeping stock of the situation round the clock. The distraught family members of Guha, who resided at Sakherbazar in Behala, said that they were awaiting the return of the mortal remains of the deceased. Hakim, after visiting their residence, said that the Chief Minister was constantly in touch with the family members.

He said that the killings were a dastardly act on the part of the perpetrators. "Those who carried out the attack in Pulwama were cowards, so are those who killed the tourists in Pahalgam," he said after meeting the family members of Guha at their Behala residence. Hakim said: "I also condemn those due to whose laxity such killings could take place."

Another man, Manish Ranjan, who hailed from Jhalda in Purulia district of West Bengal, was also killed in the terror attack. Ranjan was a Central government employee and resided at Hyderabad on work, his relatives said. He was visiting Kashmir on a holiday with his family, they said.