Thousands pay last respects to Budgam doctor killed in Kashmir terror attack

Just two weeks ago, the house echoed with laughter as hundreds gathered for his daughter’s wedding. On Monday, cries of anger and anguish rang through Dr Shahnawaz’s Budgam residence and the streets around it, the celebration so quickly giving way to mourning.

Slogans of ‘Naara-e-Takbeer, Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is the greatest) were heard as many thousands paid their last respects to the 52-year-old killed in a terror attack on Sunday in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. The doctor and six labourers were gunned down by terrorists at a tunnel-construction site on the Srinagar-Leh national highway.

People arrived from Nayidgam in Soibugh area of Budgam and adjoining areas for Shahnawaz’s last rites.

“This has come like a bolt of lightning from the sky. The family was still celebrating the wedding and now this news,” said Ali Mohammad, a neighbour of the doctor.

Shahnawaz raised his siblings after the early death of their parents, his sister said. “He was both our father and mother... Today, we have really been orphaned,” she said.

By the time the ambulance carrying the mortal remains of the doctor reached his native village, the mourners’ numbers had swelled and they hailed him as a martyr.

They participated in the prayers ceremony and paid their last respects. He was then taken to be laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard amid religious slogans.

The doctor is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Shahnawaz was posted as a doctor at a tunnel construction site by APCO Infratech, an infrastructure company he was working for.

According to officials, the terrorists—believed to be at least two—opened indiscriminate fire on a group that had returned to their camp late in the evening. Five persons sustained injuries in the attack and are undergoing treatment.

The doctor’s killing was a heinous crime, a neighbour said. “In Islam, we believe that killing an innocent is as good as killing all humans. Doctor sahib was innocent, he was kind and helped people in need,” he added.