Wife recounts her husband's final moments in Pahalgam terror attack

Hyderabad: Kamakshi Prasanna, the wife of Somisetty Madhusudhan who was killed in Tuesday's Pahalgam terror attack, remains in disbelief as she recounts the harrowing experience. She revealed that another tourist, who with his two-year-old baby and pleaded for mercy, was also shot dead indiscriminately.

The family had just finished lunch at a hotel and was browsing shawls at a nearby shop when the attack occurred. Madhusudhan's mortal remains reached his native town of Kavali in Nellore district late Wednesday.

"We had just stepped out of the hotel after lunch and were looking at shawls in a shop right outside," Kamakshi recalled. "Suddenly, we heard gunshots. The shopkeeper initially reassured us, saying someone was simply celebrating Kashmir's anniversary. But the hotel staff sensed danger and urged us to run."

She continued, "Armed men approached us and began firing indiscriminately. People around us were falling. Everything happened so quickly. My husband instructed our children to run to safety while we both sat down with our heads bowed, holding each other's hands tightly."

According to Kamakshi, one of the attackers asked twice, "Hindu or Muslim?" When they didn't respond, she heard a shot and felt her lap become wet with blood. "I looked to my side and saw my husband's face covered in blood. I never expected this to happen," she said.

Kamakshi also witnessed another tourist showing his two-year-old child and begging for mercy, only to be killed. "We believed that under Prime Minister Modi's government, Kashmir was safe to visit, which is why we went there," she told a TV channel.

Somisetty Madhusudhan Rao had been working as a senior software engineer in Bengaluru for the past 12 years. He had settled there with Kamakshi, his wife of 20 years. The couple has two children—a daughter Medhasree studying in Intermediate and a son Sridatta in 8th grade.