Kashmir hols turn fatal for US-based techie on annual summer visit to Kol
Times of India | 23 April 2025
Kolkata: A 40-year-old Kolkata techie, a resident of Florida, US, for about a decade, was among the 28 tourists massacred in Tuesday's terror attack in Pahalgam. Bitan Adhikary had come to his home town on April 8 with his wife Sohini (37) and three-year-old son Hridaan on summer break.
Primarily in Kolkata to visit Bitan's ailing elderly parents who stay in Behala's Sakher Bazar, the three of them flew to Kashmir on April 16 and were supposed to return on Thursday (April 24). They had gone to Pahalgam on Tuesday itself, just a few hours before Bitan was gunned down, his family said.
Sohini and Hridaan, who survived the attack, are headed to Kolkata. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee called her up to express her condolences, and said state govt would extend all possible help to bring them back. Several other tourists from Bengal, too, were being helped, sources said.
"Though no words are enough to console her (Sohini) in this hour of grief, I have assured her that my govt is taking all steps to bring back his (Bitan's) mortal remains to his house at Kolkata," the CM posted on X.
In Kolkata, Bitan, Sohini and Hridaan had put up at the Baishnabghata home of Bitan's cousin, Debashish Chakraborty, who is also primary caregiver for Bitan's elderly parents. "Bitan was the only support for his parents. I spoke to him just this morning," an inconsolable Debashish told state minister Aroop Biswas, who paid them a visit.
When the chief minister called up Sohini, they were en route to Srinagar. Sohini, in a brief conversation with the CM, told her that she only wanted to return to Kolkata, Biswas reported, adding, "We are doing whatever necessary to bring her and the child back." Banerjee, it was learnt, also spoke to J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah.
"The state home department and the resident commissioner in Delhi are in touch with the ministry of home affairs and J&K govt to ensure Bitan's body is brought back to the state at the earliest," Biswas said after meeting the bereaved family. "The body is now at Srinagar General Hospital. It will be sent back after post-mortem," he added.
Late into Tuesday, reports were reaching Bengal govt of several tourists from Bengal who suffered injuries or miraculously survived the attack. Tourist Shabari Guha escaped with minor injuries, a police officer said. A Krishnanagar couple, who had gone to J&K on their honeymoon, also survived miraculously, according to initial reports.