Shubham Dwivedi had finished saying the word “Hindu” before he was shot. His wife, Aishanya, standing beside him, didn’t realise what was happening until it was too late.
“They asked us, ‘Are you Hindu or Muslim?’ When we said we were Hindu, they just shot him,” she told BBC Hindi in an interview last week.
The young couple from Uttar Pradesh had recently married and were visiting Kashmir with family when terrorists struck in the Pahalgam area.
Shubham was among the 26 people killed.
Now, Aishanya has asked a question that’s echoing far beyond her own grief: “Why are we making this about Hindu or Muslim?”
“They were terrorists,” she said. “They are not people. They have no religion. They are monsters.”
In a firm rebuke to attempts at communalising the incident, Aishanya emphasised what she believes is the true failure, not of the people but of the state.
“Actually, I can say it: our country abandoned us there. Our government abandoned us. Our Army abandoned us,” she said.
Aishanya said there was no visible protection the day the attackers struck.
All through Kashmir, CRPF personnel were stationed every 30 metres, but at the spot where the attack happened, there was no one.
“God knows whether it was a failure of intelligence, of planning, or just acknowledgement. But there was a failure. At home, our parents protect us. In a country, the government and the army are responsible for protecting us,” she added.
She said the terrain made it impossible to run or hide. “It is the kind of mountain that people can’t easily escape from. I don’t know how we escaped. I don’t know what higher power brought us down to safety.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised that India will “punish every terrorist and their backers.” But to survivors like Aishanya, the wound isn’t just personal.”
Some sections of society have attempted to assign religious blame, but Aishanya insists that such division only compounds the tragedy.
“Why are we talking about Hindus and Muslims and Brahmins?” she asked. “They are not humans. They are monsters.”
