Wife of slain Navy officer appeals for peace after Pahalgam terror attack
Says don’t want hate against Muslims
New Delhi / Karnal: Days after losing her husband in the terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, Himanshi Narwal — the wife of Indian Navy Lieutenant Vinay Narwal — made a moving appeal for communal harmony, urging people not to target any particular community in the aftermath of the tragedy.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, Himanshi, a PhD scholar from Gurugram, said, “We don’t want people going against Muslims or Kashmiris. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice.”
Lieutenant Vinay Narwal was among the 26 defence personnel and civilians killed in the April 22 attack. He had just recently married Himanshi on April 16. The couple was on their honeymoon in Pahalgam when the incident occurred.
His mortal remains were brought to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport with full military honours, where they were received by Navy officials, grieving family members, and political leaders, including Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
An emotional Himanshi broke down as she saluted and embraced her husband’s coffin. Fighting back tears, she said, “Let his soul rest in peace. He lived a good life. He made us really proud, and we should continue to uphold that pride in every way.”
The final rites were conducted on Wednesday evening in Lieutenant Narwal’s hometown, Karnal in Haryana. His younger sister, 21-year-old Shristi, lit the funeral pyre in the presence of thousands of mourners. Navy personnel paid tribute with a gun salute, while chants of “Bharat ka veer amar rahe” and “Pakistan Murdabad” echoed through the crowd.
Speaking to Chief Minister Saini at the cremation site, Shristi expressed her pain, saying, “He was alive for some time, but no one came to save him… I want them dead,” referring to the attackers.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
