Bengal: NIA talks to widow & daughter of Pahalgam victim for over four hours

Kolkata, April 26 (IANS) National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials, on Saturday, spoke to the widow and daughter of Late Samir Guha, a central government officer and one of the three tourists from West Bengal who were killed in Kashmir’s Pahalgam terror attack.

The NIA officers arrived at Guha’s residence at Sakher Bazar in Behala, Kolkata and spoke to Guha’s widow and daughter for over four hours.

Both of them were with Guha at Pahalgam while the ghastly terror attack took place, following the selective killing of Hindu tourists.

Sources said that the NIA official tried to get information from Guha’s widow and daughter about what they actually 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.

Guha went for a holiday to Kashmir with his wife and daughter and was supposed to return to Kolkata this week. After returning to Kolkata, his widow confirmed to the media persons that her deceased husband was among those who were specially selected by the masked terrorist for killing after he was identified as a Hindu.

Sources said that the NIA official will also speak to the widows and children of the other two tourists from West Bengal, namely Bitan Adhikari and Manish Ranjan Mishra, who were killed in the Pahalgam attack.

While Mishra was a Central Intelligence Bureau officer, Adhikari was currently settled in Florida, US. The widows and children of both Mishra and Adhikari were there with them at Pahalgam during the attack.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced compensation of Rs 10 lakhs for each of the victim families. She also announced 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 Jammu & Kashmir earlier this week, who was a resident of Tehatta in Nadia district.

--IANS

src/dan