New Delhi: At 33, Neeraj Udhwani’s life had settled around the precision of numbers. Sumit Parmar, on the other hand, was just 16, and had dreams in his eyes—the National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadet wanted to join the Indian Army.
These two lives couldn’t have been further apart. On 22 April 2025, however, in the serene meadows of Pahalgam, their stories met an abrupt end. Both were shot by terrorists simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Udhwani went to Pahalgam because his mother suggested it; the Parmars had planned their first family vacation in Kashmir. Both families believed the Valley would be safe, and all they would bring back would be photographs and memories.
It has been one year since the massacre in Baisaran Valley. And for the families of the 26 victims the trauma is an endless misery. They return to the attack every time the police or the government makes a statement, reels are pushed on social media, or when Operation Sindoor finds a mention in any political rally.
On 22 April 2025, terrorists killed 25 Indians—24 tourists and a Kashmiri local—and one Nepalese tourist at the Baisaran meadows in Pahalgam before fleeing. Eyewitness accounts indicate victims were singled out on the basis of religion, and shot at close range in front of their families.
At the time of the attack, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit and US Vice-President J.D. Vance was visiting India. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the attack, before withdrawing its claim.
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.
Shattered dreams
Neeraj Udhwani lived a life that was as structured as it was vibrant. A 33-year-old chartered accountant based in Dubai, he was a man of specific tastes—branded clothes, a collection of 50 suits, 50 pairs of shoes, and a love for fancy watches. He worked as a finance manager at Cognita Schools, a UK-based education management firm.
Udhwani spent most of his life in Dubai, according to his uncle. Though born in Jaipur, he had moved early to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where his father ran a textile business. He completed his schooling at the Indian High School in Dubai, briefly returning to Jaipur to earn a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Rajasthan.
“After college, he moved back to Dubai,” said his uncle, who recalled raising his nephew in his own lap when Udhwani was a child. “He even completed his chartered accountancy degree in Dubai.”
According to Udhwani’s LinkedIn profile, he qualified as an accountant under the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) before holding various finance-related roles in Dubai. His father Pradeep passed away 10 years ago, and mother Jyoti then returned to India to live with her elder son Kishore in Jaipur’s Model Town locality.
Udhwani built a successful career abroad but remained close to his roots in Jaipur. His family, a mix of high achievers, including his brothers—an income tax officer—had his back.
“Neeraj had returned to India for a friend’s wedding in Shimla. And, it was at their mother’s suggestion, that he and his wife Ayushi decided to extend their trip to Kashmir,” Neeraj’s uncle, Prakash Geryani, who has a consumer goods business, said.
“It’s so beautiful there,” Udhwani’s mother told him. The 33-year-old loved exploring new places.
They went because the Valley seemed peaceful, a perfect getaway before their planned return to Dubai on 23 April. One day before that, their lives changed forever.
The news reached Jaipur not through a formal call, but through his surname. Relatives told Geryani, “One Udhwani has died.”
Geryani began searching, and finally saw the name Udhwani on a casualty list. Hoping against hope, he began a frantic search through government sources. “We tried to check who had been killed… we got to know he was shot…”
Udhwani had planned to move back to India after five years to start his own business. Instead, his family is left trying to reconcile the destiny that took him.
His 70-year-old mother, who suggested the trip, now sits in their flat in Model Town, Jaipur, while the rest of the family tries to move on by not looking back. “We don’t speak to the media. We don’t want to recall the specific memories of that day. We prefer to remember our Neeraj in our prayers,” Geryani says.
For the Udhwani family, life now is a forced march forward, everything, all the clothes, the shoes, the watches remain still, frozen in time.
A joint family torn apart
The Parmar family in Bhavnagar, Gujarat was a bustling joint family of twelve, until a single afternoon turned their home upside down.
For as long as they can remember, the family took every single vacation together.
But last year, when Yatesh Parmar planned a Kashmir trip, his brother Amit couldn’t join them. He had to take care of his parents. Yatesh and his family went ahead. Everybody back home kept waiting for the Kashmiri shawls and wooden toys they would return with.
On the afternoon of 22 April everything collapsed.
Amit was at his hair salon when his phone buzzed; he thought there had been an accident at a game zone. He never imagined it would be a terror attack.
Scrolling Instagram, Amit saw a reel. “People in Jamnagar were talking about an accident in Pahalgam. I thought maybe somebody got hurt. Until, I came across a reel, where I saw Sumit, with 3-4 gunshots in his head. I couldn’t breathe for a minute… I could not understand what was happening… I felt paralysed.”
He started making calls, a frantic outreach to possibly anybody he could find in his phone directory, or on the Internet. He had not just lost his nephew, he also lost his brother, the one he set up this hair salon business with, when the duo completed 10th standard, and they had to support his family.
All Amit could think about once he got back home was the NCC medals hanging around in his nephew Sumit’s room. “Sumit was in XIth grade. He wanted to join the Indian Army. He dreamt of a life in uniform. He wanted to fight and protect our country. They killed him… they killed his dreams… ”
Life in Bhavnagar has changed. Amit says, his sister-in-law remains in entombed grief, having watched the massacre in front of her eyes. The joint family that once traveled together no longer goes on vacation. They no longer take risks. The salon continues to run.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)