NIA meets Prasant’s wife, son to piece together attack details

Bhubaneswar: A three-member National Investigation Agency (NIA) team reached Balasore on Saturday to meet the wife of Prasant Satapathy, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, and gather details about the incident. Sources said NIA sleuths also gathered detailed information from his nine-year-old son to understand how the terrorists arrived at the meadow, their appearance, their conversations and their behaviour. Prasant was cremated with full state honours in Balasore on Thursday.
Prasant, who was an accountant at the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET) in Balasore, went to Kashmir with his wife and nine-year-old son on April 19. NIA's top officers flew to Pahalgam soon after the terror attack to collect material evidence and understand the ground situation. From initial reports, NIA learned that a terrorist, dressed in army fatigues, suddenly appeared in the Baisaran meadow and began talking to the tourists to segregate them before killing many in cold blood.
A local officer privy to the NIA probe said, "It is very important to elicit exhaustive information from the eyewitnesses and survivors so that every aspect of the investigation has corroborative evidence. There were several groups of tourists, and everybody's experience of encountering the terrorist is unique. Their memories are different. Their visual recapitulation is different, and so is their traumatic experience. Once they are out of trauma, they might recall many things and speak out which can help the investigators get more details about the perpetrators."
Prasant was shot at point-blank range in front of his wife, Priyadarshini. According to her, Prasant was initially in good condition, but he suddenly deteriorated. In a video, Priyadarshini was seen seeking the help of locals to reach her husband, whom the police had taken to an unknown location. "NIA will be interested to know whether the terrorist launched indiscriminate firing or chose to pick and shoot. Also, how their pants were unzipped before being killed," an official said.
Priyadarshini had said they completed a ropeway ride and were visiting a nearby restaurant when the terrorists struck. "My husband fell before me with blood flowing from his head. I went out to seek help, and when I returned, Army personnel, who had already arrived at the site, were rushing him to the hospital," Priyadarshini had said on Tuesday.
Hours before Prasant was shot dead, he sent videos of walking in the snow to his siblings back home.