New Delhi: It was supposed to be a few days of celebration. Kashmir is a popular destination for family trips. For Manjunath Rao and Pallavi, residents of Shivamogga in Karnataka, their first holiday in Kashmir was meant to mark their son Abhijan’s 97 percent score in Class 12.
Tickets were booked, clothes bought and bags packed. The family planned their journey carefully around the celebration in snow-capped Kashmir.
On 19 April, 2025, the family left for Kashmir, documenting their trip in videos and photos and uploading some on social media.
In one video, Manjunath (47), a real estate bussinessman, and Pallavi talk about their Shikara journey, their boat ride, and their stay in the boat house. This turned out to be their last video.
On 22 April, their celebrations would be cruelly cut short by the deadliest terror attacks on civilians in the Valley in years.
A group of terrorists attacked tourists in the Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam on 22 April, killing 26 tourists, with eyewitness accounts indicating they singled out men based on their religion.
“After they shot my brother dead,” Manjunath’s cousin Dr. Ravi Kiran, a dentist in Shivmogga, told ThePrint, “the terrorists came to Pallavi. She asked him to shoot her as well. Even their son asked them to gun him down as well.”
Kiran recalled what Pallavi told him. “The terrorists did not shoot us. They left saying ’go and ask Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi).”
The mayhem in Pahalgam
After visiting some parts of Kashmir, Manjunath and his family arrived in Pahalgam on 22 April, the day of the terror attack.
The terrorists shot dead 25 Indian nationals and a Nepalese citizen at the Baisaran meadows before melting into the surrounding forests. Eyewitness accounts indicate victims were singled out on the basis of religion, and shot at close range in front of their families.
Recalling the day of the incident, Ravi said, the trio only had one functional SIM card with them, and due to poor connectivity, the family back home were not able to speak with Manjunath.
Only he would update them on where they were in Kashmir.
So, when the attack happened, Pallavi couldn’t get through to the family over the phone. “Pallavi and Abhijan did not know what to do, and where to go…it was so chaotic,” Ravi said. They sat with Manjunath’s body for some time.
“Then, Pallavi finally managed to call me. She told me some men came and shot all the men dead. ‘What should I do?’ Pallavi sounded so numb. I, too, panicked…” Kiran recalled.
The bodies of the tourists killed in the attack were later shifted to a hospital. Manjunath’s body was also being shifted, and Pallavi was told she’d been taken in a different vehicle. “She told them she is going to be around Manjunath’s body, and will not go anywhere else,” Ravi told ThePrint.
At the time of the attack, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit and United States Vice-President J.D. Vance was visiting India. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) chaired by PM Modi met the day after the attack and in a statement highlighted a potential link to Pakistan, saying “cross-border linkages of the terrorist attack were brought out” in a briefing it received.
‘Living in grief’
“We are yet to come to terms with what our family has experienced,” Ravi told ThePrint. “Every day, we feel his absence.”
Kiran said Manjunath was a “fun-loving person”. “He made everybody around him laugh and smile. A complete centre of attraction. Every festival with Manjunath meant a long night of laughter.”
But, Ravi says, everything in the family has paused since that fateful day. There are no long nights, no festivals left to celebrate, no Manjunath to make everybody laugh.
“We have stopped celebrating festivals. We are still reeling from the grief. Pallavi is broken. She feels incomplete, and she cannot even cry.”
“From what happened on April 22, 2025, to now, April 22, 2026, our family has lost everything. Hope, strength, courage and most importantly, our Manjunath…” Kiran said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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