Pahalgam terror attack: Everyone sought his advice, say family of Indore victim lamenting loss

Sushil Nathaniel, who was killed in the terror attack in Pahalgam, was a branch manager at Life Insurance Corporation in Alirajpur. Photo: Special Arrangement

Family and friends often reached out to Sushil Nathaniel for advice, says his younger brother Vikas Nathaniel as he describes him as the “guardian of the family”. Mr. Sushil, a resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, was among the 26 people shot dead in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. 

A branch manager at Life Insurance Corporation in Alirajpur, Mr. Sushil, 58, had travelled to J&K on April 19 for holidays with his wife Jennifer, 54, daughter Akanksha, 32, who also suffered bullet injuries in her leg, and son Austen, 27. Devastated and still processing their loss, the three are scheduled to arrive in Indore late evening with Mr. Sushil’s mortal remains. 

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The rest of the family, that found out about Mr. Sushil’s death Tuesday night, waits for them. “Austen called me around 9:30 and said ‘Papa has been shot, papa is no more’. We could not process this for a while,” Mr. Vikas told The Hindu. 

Mr. Vikas says that his brother was also planning to get his children married soon. “My brother left without seeing any of his children married,” he adds. 

“He was such a mature person and shared a good bond with everyone that we all would seek his advice whenever we started something new. He used to keep doing different things to keep the family happy. He loved taking them on trips,” Mr. Vikas says, as he struggles to put together more words. 

Mr. Sushil’s father, Jerald Nathaniel, 85, a retired State roadways employee, also mourns his eldest son’s demise. 

“With our father being old and unwell, my brother was like a guardian for the family,” Mr. Vikas said.

Suresh Luniya, a close childhood friend of Mr. Sushil’s, says that he has been in constant touch with Austen over the phone but “has not had the guts to speak with Jennifer bhabhi”.

“Our families are very close but I don’t know what to say to her. Akanksha is not able to walk at the moment. I have been just asking Austen to take care of them,” he says, adding that he has avoided talking about the tragedy with them over the phone. 

“Austen is also an emotional person so I am not bringing the incident up. We have just asked him to bring everyone back to Indore. We are all there for them,” he adds.

He describes his friend’s family as a well-educated and progressive thinking one. Ms. Jennifer is a government school teacher in Indore, while Ms. Akanksha is a branch manager at Bank of Baroda in Gujarat’s Surat and Mr. Austen is a State-level badminton player. 

“He had been posted in Alirajpur about two years ago and his colleagues also loved him. He would always stay connected with his friends and had a jolly nature,” he said.

A native of Jobat in Alirajpur, Mr. Sushil moved to Indore about 30 years ago and was currently living in the city’s Veena Nagar area. 

Meanwhile, Jemma Nathaniel, Mr. Vikas’s wife, said that the terrorists had asked his religion and asked him to recite verses from Islamic scripture. 

“He had probably sensed that something bad is going to happen and asked his wife to hide. They got him to kneel and asked his religion and told him to recite Kalma. When he said he was a Christian, they shot him,” she said. 

M.P. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed his condolences on Mr. Sushil’s demise and said that he would visit Indore to offer tribute to his mortal remains and meet the family. 

Earlier in the day, Indore Collector Ashish Singh visited the victim’s relatives and assured them full assistance from the administration.