Pahalgam attack: NIA talks to widow of second victim from Bengal

Kolkata, April 27 (IANS) National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials, on Sunday, spoke to the widow of Late Bitan Adhikari, one of the three tourists from West Bengal who were killed in Kashmir’s Pahalgam terror attack.

On Sunday evening, a team of three NIA officials reached Adhikari’s ancestral residence at Patuli on the southern outskirts of Kolkata and spoke to her widow, Sohini Adhikari, for about three hours.

Sources aware of the conversation said that the Sohini were questioned about the exact places they visited before reaching Pahalgam during their holiday trip to Kashmir.

NIA officials tried to get information from Sohini about what they saw while the terrorist attacks took place. The investigating officials also tried to get a rough idea of the number of terrorists they witnessed during the massacre.

Sohini and their three-year-old son were with Bitan Adhikari while the ghastly terror attack took place, following the selective killing of Hindu tourists.

Bitten Adhikari was currently settled with his wife, Sohini and son Hridan in Florida, US, for job purposes. His wife is also employed in Florida.

The family came to their Patuli residence on April 8, and on April 16, they went to Kashmir for an outing. They were supposed to return to Kolkata last week only. However, with Bitan being among those tourists killed in the terror attack on Tuesday, Sohini and Hridan came back.

On Saturday, the NIA officials questioned the widow and daughter of another tourist from West Bengal who was killed in the Pahalgam attack and an erstwhile central government officer, Sameer Guha.

On Monday, sources said, the NIA officials are scheduled to visit Jhalda in Purulia district and talk to the widow of the third tourist from West Bengal to be killed in the Pahalgam attack, Manish Ranjan Mishra, who was a Central Intelligence Bureau officer.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced compensation of Rs 10 lakhs for each of the victim families. She also announced compensation for the family of Havaldar Jhantu Ali Sheikh, the martyr paratrooper killed in an ambush with terrorists in the Basantgarh area in Udhampur district of J&k earlier this week, who was a resident of Tehatta in Nadia district.

--IANS

src/dan