All morning, there has been a steady stream of visitors pouring into the Mishra residence on Baghmundi Road, ward number 5 of Purulia’s Jhalda town, and the house of Tage Hailyang at Tajang village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Subansiri district. Although in two different parts of India, both sets of visitors have one thing in common – neither knows what to say to the families that have just seen the lives of their young sons being snuffed out by the dastardly attack in Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, Kashmir.
Manish Ranjan Mishra, 41, and Tage Hailyang, 30, are two of the 26 men – mostly tourists but also one local – who were shot dead by some unidentified gunmen who attacked Pahalgam, one of Kashmir’s most popular tourist spots. The attack has drawn widespread condemnation both domestically and internationally.
While Manish was a section officer in the Intelligence Bureau and working in Hyderabad, Hailyang was a corporal in the Indian Air Force’s Srinagar base. The oldest of three sons of Mangalesh Mishra, a retired headmaster of Jhalda Hindi High School whose family is originally from Rohtas in Bihar, Manish joined the IB in 2014-15.
He was in Jammu and Kashmir for a pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi Temple with his wife and two young children and was meant to head there from Kashmir when the attack occurred, his family said, adding that they were meant to join him at the shrine.
“He was shot dead in front of his shocked wife and children, his younger brother Vineet, 36, says, his voice shaking as he spoke. “The news reached us Tuesday afternoon. They were on their way to the Vaishno Devi temple from Kashmir… We too had begun our journey, eager to join them, only to be forced back by this devastating news”.
Those who knew him, remember him as calm, polite and soft spoken. “Always the teachers’ delight,” Sanjay Gupta, a railway officer, says.
Similar grief and shock now engulf the house of Tage Hailyang in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tajang village. Posted in Srinagar for the last five years in IAF’s ground staff and married for only about a year, Hailyang had just been transferred to Assam and was enjoying a holiday with his wife before joining air force base at Dibrugarh when the attack occurred.
“We were in shock yesterday,” his younger brother Tage Laling told the media. “We tried to get in touch with our sister-in-law but she was severely traumatised — they killed him in front of her.”
It was while he was studying at Don Bosco College, Itanagar, some five years ago that Hailyang came across an advertisement for the IAF and immediately decided to appear for an interview despite his family’s advice against it. He got the job and joined the forces even before he took the final examination.
“He’s always been talented, always excelling in his studies. We told him to pursue higher education but he was interested in the armed forces,” his brother says, adding that his older brother was in the Indian Army.
At Jhalda town, Manish’s family and friends have gathered at his childhood home to await his body. They are also demanding answers from the central government over the attack.
“It’s they who made people believe that Kashmir is safe. By this, it’s evident that it is not. How is it possible that tourists were attacked and the attackers left the place without being caught?” one relative said. Nagendra Nath, a former student of Manish’s father Mangalesh Mishra, adds: “What was his fault? He was on holiday”.
But Hailyang’s family refuses to see his death as a loss. “My brother sacrificed his life for the country… I feel that wherever such terrorists are seen, they should be given a similar response on behalf of our lost brother. Our brother must be avenged,” Tage Laling said.