MAKING PAKISTAN PAY

THE HARD OPTIONS THAT INDIA CAN EXER

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

Vinay Narwal, a 26-year-old lieutenant in the Indian Navy, and his wife, Himanshi, had been really looking forward to their dream honeymoon in idyllic Pahalgam after they failed to get a visa for Switzerland. They had flown into Kashmir soon after their wedding reception in Karnal, Haryana. The next day, on April 22, they joined hundreds of other tourists to visit the alpine meadows of Baisaran. “We never thought this trip would turn into a nightmare,” recounted a dazed and teary-eyed Himanshi, her hands still adorned with henna and the bridal chura (bangles). “I was eating bhelpuri with my husband,” she is heard telling locals in a video. “A man came over and asked my husband if he was Muslim. When he said no, the man shot him dead.” Screams filled the meadow as 26 human lives were taken with that same suddenness, on that merest pretext, in the space of a few unending minutes. Soon after, a photographer captured the distraught Himanshi seated beside her slain husband with blood stains on her clothes, framing the horror for a nation. The next day, when Vinay’s body was flown to his hometown for cremation, Himanshi broke down before his coffin, draped in the national flag. “I pray that his soul is in peace, and he has the best time wherever he is,” she managed to say through her tears.