Pahalgam: Intelligence Bureau officer among 3 from Bengal killed in terror attack

At least three people from West Bengal, including an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer, were killed in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday, people aware of the developments confirmed.

The three victims have been identified as Samir Guha, Bitan Adhikari and Manish Ranjan. While Guha and Adhikari were residents of Kolkata, Ranjan was an IB officer from Purulia district posted in Hyderabad.

Adhikari, a 40-year-old techie based in Florida, had come to Kolkata on vacation. He went to Kashmir on April 16 with wife Sohini and three-year-old son. They were supposed to return on the night of April 24.

“I even spoke with them on Tuesday morning. But then the horrific news came. He had asked me to join his family on the trip. I declined. I even advised them to avoid riding a pony in the hills,” his brother Dipak Adhikari told media persons.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to Sohini over the phone, while state ministere Arup Biswas rushed to Adhikari’s house in south Kolkata’s Baishnabghata and said the chief minister was making all arrangements to get the family back home as early as possible.

“One of the victims, Sri Bitan Adhikari, is from West Bengal. I had spoken to his wife over the phone. Though no words are enough to console her in this hour of grief, I have assured her that my government is taking all steps to bring back his mortal remains to his house at Kolkata,” Banerjee wrote on X late on Tuesday night.

“What will I tell Bitan’s son? He is just a kid. We are all shattered. What will Sohini do now? I can’t even imagine,” Dipak said.

Guha, too, had gone to Kashmir with his wife and daughter on a vacation on April 16. They were supposed to return on April 23. He was a central government employee.

“I spoke to my didi (Samir’s wife) on Wednesday morning. She and my niece were not hurt. They are just under tremendous trauma. I didn’t ask anything about the incident. I don’t want them to narrate the same thing over and over again. Let them come back as soon as possible,” Guha’s brother-in-law Subrata told the media.

“She just told me that their driver Md Iqbal helped them a lot. He took them to his residence where his family lives. They stayed there overnight. The army and the government are helping them,” he added.

Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended in Purulia’s Jhalda, the native place of IB officer Manish Ranjan. Ranjan was posted in Hyderabad for the past two years and had gone to Kashmir on vacation with his family.

“We have informed his father Mangaleshwar Mishra and mother in Jhalda,” a senior police officer of Purulia district told HT.

Pakistan-based terrorists on Tuesday opened fire at tourists in Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadow, killing 26 people and injuring several others.