The doctor’s wife, two sons, and a daughter survive him.
October 21, Srinagar :
Two weeks ago, hundreds of people arrived for his daughter’s wedding, and the home reverberated with laughter. Dr. Shahnawaz’s Budgam home and the surrounding streets were filled with yells of rage and agony on Monday, as the celebration swiftly turned to sadness.
As thousands of people paid their final respects to the 52-year-old who was slain in a terror assault in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on Sunday, cries of “Naara-e-Takbeer, Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the greatest) were heard. Terrorists killed the doctor and six laborers at a tunnel building site on the major route between Srinagar and Leh.
“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.