On Wednesday morning, as Praveen Rawool, 48, was out on work distributing newspapers in Dombivli, he was unaware of the terror attack in J&K’s Pahalgam.
However, while going through a newspaper, an article on the terror attack left him shocked as the photographs of the victims included that of Sanjay Laxman Lele — his childhood friend.
“I first saw the news of Pahalgam terror attack and later, on one of the Marathi newspapers, saw photo of Lel on the front page as one of the deceased persons,” Rawool said.
Lele, 50, and his maternal cousins Atul Mone and Hemant Joshi, who had gone to Kashmir with their respective families on April 20, were killed in the terror attack.
Lele lived in Shri Vijayashree Society on Subhash Road in Dombivali.
The residents of the society and nearby societies were engulfed in grief after learning about the tragic incident.
Rawool, who does not use a mobile phone, was unaware of the terror attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday evening.
Story continues below this ad
“I first read that the victims are from Dombivli, but later could not believe my eyes when I saw Lele’s photo among that of the victims,” said Rawool, as tears rolled down his face.
Rawool remembered playing cricket with Lele as children and the bond they shared. “Lele would always treat me like a family member. He was a very fun loving person,” recalled Rawool.
He also expressed his frustration over the government “not doing much to stop such attacks”.
“What is the government doing? They keep saying terrorism is over, that the situation is under control. But then how did this happen?,” asked Rawool.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd