The sindoor in her hair was still fresh. Her bridal bangles still jingled on her wrists. And her heart full of excitement and dreams of a married life just begun was brutally broken on Tuesday when just six days into her marriage, 24-year-old Himanshi Sowami became a widow.

Her husband, 26-year-old Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy, was killed in a savage terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on Tuesday, days after the couple tied the knot in Mussoorie.

What began as the most beautiful chapter of their lives has ended in a page soaked with blood and tears.

After exchanging vows at the destination wedding surrounded by close friends and family, Vinay and Himanshi had dreamt of a honeymoon in Switzerland. The newlyweds were supposed to be walking under alpine skies, not under the shadow of a massacre. Visa delays made them alter their plans. They opted for Pahalgam, closer and supposed to be tranquil.

As Asha Narwal, Vinay’s mother, was still receiving congratulatory messages from neighbours in Sector 7 of Karnal, fate had already turned its face away from the family. On Tuesday afternoon, bullets and blood shattered the scenic silence of the Baisaran meadow, 5km from Pahalgam town of Anantnag district, ironically known in local parlance as ‘mini Switzerland’.

Vinay, on a honeymoon with the love of his life, became one of the 26 victims of a terrorist ambush targeting tourists in the region.

When the news reached his home in Karnal, Vinay’s father Rajesh Narwal, an official in the Haryana excise department, left immediately for Pahalgam, accompanied by his younger daughter Srishti and Himanshi’s devastated parents, Sunil Dutt and Poonam Sowami.

At home, the truth was held back as Hawa Singh, Vinay’s grandfather and a retired police officer, is a heart patient. How could he bear the truth of losing a grandson he helped raise.

Inside the house, Vinay’s wedding sherwani still hung neatly in a wardrobe. His travel bag, half unpacked from Mussoorie, now tells the story of a journey never completed.

And now, in Karnal and Gurugram, two families mourn a son, a husband, a dream — and the brutality of a world where even honeymoons are not spared the cruelty of hate.

Vinay, who was posted in Kochi and on leave for his wedding, will now return home in a coffin.