Kanpur: “Mil lijiye humse CM sahab, hum bahut samay se milna chah rahe hain (please meet us, CM sir, we have been trying to meet you for a long time),” says 27-year-old Aishanya Dwivedi, appealing to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Aishanya is the widow of Kanpur businessman Shubham Dwivedi who was shot dead by terrorists in front of her eyes in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pahalgam on 22 April last year. Aishanya had pleaded with them to kill her too. But they didn’t.
Shubham, who had married Aishanya just two months earlier, was among 26 people shot dead that day.
A year later, in a flat in Kanpur’s Shyam Nagar, nearly 100 km away from state capital Lucknow, Aishanya and her in-laws continue to mourn Shubham—and wait for the government to fulfil their demands: a government job for his wife and martyr status for the victims of the attack.
In the guest room of the flat where she lives with her in-laws, a photograph of Shubham adorns one wall while the other has a picture of his father Sanjay with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking to ThePrint, the family asserts it has full faith in the PM and the UP CM, but remains disappointed with what it describes as a year of neglect by the “system”.
Within days of the incident last year, Modi and Adityanath had visited the Dwivedis in Kanpur. Even Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had met them.
Aishanya says she still remembers the tears in Adityanath’s eyes when he comforted the family and insists that he will help them.
However, the Dwivedis have so far failed to secure a second meeting with the CM.
Over the past three months, say Aishanya and Sanjay, they have made at least five attempts to seek an appointment with Adityanath, but without success. They do not hold the CM directly responsible for the delay, but believe their requests may not be reaching him.
There seems to be someone in the system who is not letting our messages reach him, says the family.
“Whenever I call his OSDs, they say our message has been conveyed to the top level. But I don’t know what message they are referring to because Yogiji has not called us,” Sanjay explains.
A year since the attack, the Dwivedis acknowledge that public and political attention on Pahalgam and the loss of innocent lives there has faded. “The incident may have faded for the others, but for us, the pain remains exactly the same,” says Aishanya,
“Not a single day has passed without us remembering Shubham. Immediately after the incident, many leaders had visited us and assured us of support. But 12 months later, that support is not that much to be seen,” she rues.
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‘Shubham was reluctant to visit’
Shubham, 31, and Aishanya had tied the knot on 12 February, 2025. Two months later, the couple had planned the Kashmir trip with nine other family members. On that fateful day, he and Aishanya had gone to the upper part of Baisaran valley, while the rest of the family members stayed back.
Aishanya recalls the horrific moment she witnessed her husband being killed.
“Shubham was initially reluctant to visit Baisaran valley due to concerns over poor mobile network as he generally avoided places without signal. However, he eventually agreed after a local assured them that network coverage would be available,” she says.
“We were enjoying our trip when, all of a sudden, a man who appeared to be a local approached us. He asked my husband about his religion and then shot him in front of my eyes,” she adds, also saying that Shubham was the first person to be killed that day.
“It is very difficult for me to relive those moments. I lost my husband just two months after our marriage. We had so many dreams together, everything has vanished now.”
A graduate from Kanpur University with a passion for dance and music, Aishanya says she has been unable to move forward or focus on her career after the tragedy. For now, she adds, her only priority is to seek justice for her husband.
“My life has been stuck in shock for the past one year. I chose to stay with my in-laws, and together we are fighting for justice. The entire Kanpur stands with us; it is only the system that is creating hurdles for us,” says Aishanya.
‘We want Yogiji to attend memorial event’
The Dwivedi family’s primary grievance is their inability to secure a second meeting with Adityanath, despite repeated efforts over the past several months.
Sanjay recalls his meeting with the CM last year. “He asked what could be done for my daughter-in-law. I requested a government job for her, and he said he would look into it,” he says.
But there has been no progress on the request, adds the family.
They are now planning a memorial event for Shubham in Kanpur on 22 April and hope the chief minister will attend. As of now, they say deputy CM Brajesh Pathak has agreed to attend, but that’s not enough for them.
According to Sanjay, the family has not demanded any financial compensation but consistently requested for a government job for Aishanya.
He says that with the efforts of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana, who is also the former local MLA, a memorial gate has been constructed in Shubham’s name and a proposal to name a park after him has been passed. However, Sanjay maintains, these steps are not enough and urges the government to grant “martyr” status to all those killed in the Pahalgam attack.
The family says they have so far received no response to two letters they wrote to the PM and President of India, seeking “martyr” status for their son.
Shubham was Sanjay’s only son. “I had a son and have a daughter; my daughter is married and now we are left with our daughter-in-law, who is like a daughter to us. Together, we are continuing our fight to secure martyr status for Shubham,” he says.
Regarding his photograph with PM Modi at his home, Sanjay says it was taken during their only meeting when Modi visited the family in Kanpur after the Pahalgam incident. He adds that he later wrote to the PM seeking martyr status for his son, but is yet to get a reply.
Terming the demand genuine, he asserted that his son was an innocent victim and alleged that the Pahalgam incident was a result of failure of security and that the government bore responsibility.
“We want Yogiji to attend our memorial event, but we have not received any response from his office yet,” says Aishanya.
However, she maintains that she considers him a most capable leader. “We are not disappointed with him, but with the system run by the staff,” she adds.
Following the Pahalgam attack, India had launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May last year, targeting terrorist infrastructure at nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Aishanya says she supported Operation Sindoor and expressed faith in the Indian Army, adding that forces should be given a free hand to eliminate terrorism.
“The army should not be restrained. Only our forces can end terrorism, but there should be no obstacles. Unke haath nahi bandhey hone chhaiye (their hands shouldn’t be tied),” she asserts.
Reflecting on her personal loss, she adds: “I do not want anyone else to lose their husband the way I did, just two months after my marriage. I will continue my fight for justice.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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