Pahalgam widow recounts horror: 'In his final moments, he would've definitely said 'I love you' to me'

Aishanya, the wife of Kanpur resident Shubham Dwivedi who lost his life in the dastardly Pahalgam attack, recounted the harrowing day in a recent interview. She said that if she would have been with him in the final moments, he would have definitely said "I love you" but everything ended in a second.

Shubham was one of the 26 people, mostly tourists, killed by terrorists in the Baisaran Valley near Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. Shubham Dwivedi, a 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur, married Aishanya on February 12 this year. 

The couple was in Kashmir on a week-long holiday along with their 9 family members. They had visited Sonmarg and Gulmarg before reaching Pahalgam. 

She further said that the couple initially thought the terrorist was approaching them for a game. "He asked us if we were Hindus or Muslims, looked into our eyes and asked us to recite a kalma," Aishanya told AajTak in an exclusive interview.

She recounted that they told the terrorist that 'we are Hindus', after which he shot Shubham before the couple could finish the sentence. "If he was injured or could breathe even barely, he would've said 'I love you'. He loved me a lot," Aishanya further said.

Furthermore, she stated that the terrorist checked Shubham's body after shooting him dead. She also claimed that the gunfire lasted almost 45 minutes but nobody came to help. 

"The terrorists knew that no one would help, and hence, had time to enquire about people's religious identities." She even said that their horsemen kept asking them questions repeatedly, which made them suspicious of the involvement of locals.

Aishanya said that they sought help from horse riders, asking them to escort her elderly parents to safety but the horse riders refused. Some of their family members were reluctant to go up, but the horsemen insisted that they should proceed. 

"I only know one thing- if we were Muslims, we would have been saved. We were killed just because we were Hindus," she emphasised. Aishanya is also demanding that Shubham should be posthumously recognised as a martyr.