Women’s wailing rent the air when the body of Mushtaq Ahmad Kataria was brought to his home in Chowkibal village in Kupwara, a day after his elder brother LiyaqatKataria died in a road accident.
Mushtaq, Liyaqat and their uncle AijazKataria were critically injured when the car they were travelling in met with an accident near Unsoo, Handwara. Aijaz is battling for his life at SKIMS, Soura.
The trio was returning home from Odisha, where they had gone to inquire into the progress of the search for Aijaz’s son SuhailKataria, an MBBS student who went missing on February 9 from his hostel room at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Odisha.
Mushtaq, a labourer, was the lone bread earner of his family comprising three grown up girls and minor sons. He succumbed at the SKIMS this morning.
“We are devastated. Who will look after my three girls. We were already struggling to fund their education,” said Mushtaq’s widow Resham Jan.
Survived by four sons and three daughters, Liyaqat, who was driving the ill-fated car and died on the spot, was an agent at the local taxi stand.
AijazKataria’s house is deserted as some of his family members are at the hospital and others consoling the bereaved kin. (Correction: In GK’s 19 March edition, we had wrongly mentioned that Liyaqat was the missing student’s uncle)