SRINAGAR: A daughter’s grief at losing her father to terrorist bullets exploded in a spirited expression of fortitude and fearlessness on Wednesday as Dr Samriddhi Bindroo swore not to shed a tear for the family’s “fighter” — Kashmiri Pandit businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo — and dared the gunmen to “come in front of me”.
Bindroo was shot dead in his pharmacy on Tuesday. “You can kill one person, but you can’t kill the spirit of Makhan Lal,” Samriddhi is seen telling reporters in one among several video clips that went viral. Bindroo and two other civilians were killed in separate attacks by the Pakistan-backed TRF the same evening.
“My father always said, ‘I’ll die with my shoes on’…I am that father’s daughter. My father gave me education while politicians gave you guns and stones. You want to fight with guns and stones? That is cowardice. All politicians are using you, come and fight with education,” said Samriddhi.
Challenging the terrorists, she said, “The mister who shot my father dead while he was working…have a face-to-face debate with us. Then we will see what you are. You won’t be able to utter a word.”
Samriddhi also spoke about how her father didn’t cower in front of terrorists during the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 90s and stayed put to build his business — the landmark Bindroo Medicate pharmacy in Iqbal Park — and raise a young family. “I am an associate professor. I have started from zero…my father started from a bicycle, my brother is a famous diabetologist, my mother sits in the shop — that is what Makhan Lal Bindroo made us. A Kashmiri Pandit, he will never die.”
Recalling how she was the only Hindu girl in her class after the Kashmiri Pandit purge, Samriddhi said, “Despite being a Hindu, I have read the Quran. The Quran says you may kill the body, the spirit lives on. Bindroo will remain alive in spirit.”