Bhubaneswar: Forty-one-year-old Prashant Satpathy’s mother has turned mute due to the shock she received on hearing the news of his son’s death in a dastardly attack by the terrorists on innocent tourists in Pahalgam of Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday. Prashant from Remuna of Balasore district was gunned down by terrorists in front of his wife and nine-year-old son in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam. “Upon hearing the news of my brother’s death, my mother has turned mute due to shock,” Prashant’s elder brother Susanta Satpathy said, adding that he had saved money for months for the trip and was really excited about it.
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An accounts assistant with the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) in Balasore district, Prashant had gone to Kashmir with his wife and son on LTC. A video sent by Prashant to his elder brother from Baisaran meadow hours before his death showed him playing with snowballs and hurling ice packs at his son Tanuj and wife Priya Darshani Acharya. In the video, Prashant clad in a white shirt and blue jeans, was seen throwing snowballs at his son and wife and enjoying the environment of Baisaran valley. He was also seen hugging Tanuj, wearing a red jacket. “This was probably the last hug to his son by Prashant,” an emotionally charged elder brother said. Prashant was the second of the three sons of their parents. He had gone to enjoy nature after the completion of his son’s school examinations. “Prashant was shot in the head while we were alighting from a ropeway in Baisaran… he collapsed on the spot. The army came an hour later,” his wife Priya Darshani told an Odia news channel from Jammu and Kashmir. She, along with her son Tanuj and three of Prashant’s relatives who rushed to Srinagar after hearing about the attack, would accompany the body that was expected to arrive in Bhubaneswar Wednesday night.
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A dark cloud of despair hovered over Ishani village in Remuna block in Balasore district as locals and politicians made a beeline to the residence of Satpathy to express condolences to his family. Prashant’s father-in-law Radhamohan Acharya said: “My son-in-law was a noble-hearted person. He had never harmed anyone. But, he was killed in a terrorist attack. This is something not acceptable.” His family said they were making arrangements for conducting the final rites Thursday and Odisha government representatives were expected to attend it. Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, who was in Jammu and Kashmir to attend a meeting, reached out to Prashant’s family and consoled his wife and son. Though terrorists mostly killed men, an Odia woman staying in Karnataka, identified as 65-year-old Sashi Kumari, was also injured in the attack. She was undergoing treatment at Government Medical College in Anantnag.
