Family of man killed in Valley seeks death penalty for terrorists

"He came from Dubai to attend a wedding function in Chandigarh. The trip to Kashmir was suddenly planned. Wish he never had this plan," said Prakash Udhwani, uncle of Neeraj Udhwani (33) who was among the 26 people who were killed during a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday.

- Senjuti Sengupta

JAIPUR: "He came from Dubai to attend a wedding function in Chandigarh. The trip to Kashmir was suddenly planned. Wish he never had this plan," said Prakash Udhwani, uncle of Neeraj Udhwani (33) who was among the 26 people who were killed during a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday.

Neeraj has been living in Dubai from the age of 3 years old when he along with his parents shifted from Jaipur. His father, Pradeep, died in Dubai 10 years ago.

A chartered accountant by profession, Neeraj settled down in Dubai with his wife Ayushi in 2023 while his elder brother Kishore Udhwani returned Jaipur with his mother Jyoti Udhwani.

"On April 16, Neeraj and Ayushi came to Shimla via Chandigarh to attend one of their friends' wedding. After attending the wedding functions in Shimla, he returned Chandigarh from where he along with his wife left for Kashmir on April 21. He was supposed to return to Dubai from Kashmir this week after the vacation," Prakash said.

However, the tragedy struck the Udhwani family on Tuesday night following a phone call from Ayushi. "They killed Neeraj," this is what she could only manage to say, Prakash recalled. Later, it was learnt that Neeraj went out of the hotel alone for a few minutes while on Tuesday afternoon while Ayushi stayed back.