Kolkata: The Pahalgam victims' kin in Kolkata on Sunday said they did not approve of an India-Pakistan cricket match in Dubai barely four and a half months after they witnessed Pakistan-trained terrorists gunned down their own in Pahalgam.
Shankar Chakraborty, a relative of Bitan Adhikary, a software engineer from Patuli who was among 26 people killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, asked: "What was the need for the match in circumstances like this? It has not even been six months since terrorists from Pakistan killed Bitan and other innocent tourists. We were in a state of war against Pakistan and now suddenly we are playing cricket."
Based in Florida since 2019, Bitan returned to India for a vacation to Srinagar with his wife Soheni and their three-and-a-half-year-old son Hridaan.
In an earlier interview, Soheni recounted how their trip turned traumatic when terrorists opened fire at Baisaran Valley. When he admitted being Hindu, he was shot.
Chakraborty said he still can't believe that the country agreed to play a cricket match against Pakistan even as the tears of the families of those who lost their loved ones in the terror attack were yet to dry.
Samir Guha's widow, 51-year-old Sarbari, who was herself injured in the Pahalgam attack, told reporters that she personally felt that the match was undesirable given the circumstances. Sarbari is still grieving with her college-going daughter (who was also a witness). "I do not have any particular feeling today. Let some emotions not be discussed," she said.
The reactions come in the backdrop of Asavari Jagdale, whose father Santosh Jagdale was one of the 26 people who lost their lives in the