In the early hours of Friday, Shahzada Bano was escorted by soldiers from her family home in Guree village, near Bijbehara in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Security forces had come to demolish the house of her son, Adil Hussain Thoker, who is now a key suspect in the deadly Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives. Before the explosives went off, Bano was shown the spot where her son had once returned home for a meal, a painful reminder of a life now shattered.
Around 12:30 am, the Army demolished the family’s house while Bano was taken to a relative’s home in a nearby village. Sniffer dogs were brought in afterward to ensure there were no unexploded devices left in the rubble.
Adil, once a promising student, has been missing since 2018. His family claims they have had no contact with him since he left for an exam in Badgam on April 29, 2018. His phone went silent after that, prompting them to file a missing person report a few days later. "We haven't heard from him since that day," said Bano. "If he is involved in the attack, the forces can act accordingly, but I can't accept that he could be involved." She appealed for her son to surrender, hoping for a peaceful resolution.
Bano recounted the visit by security forces late Thursday, when they informed her of Adil’s brief return to the family home. "They showed me a video call with an officer and said, ‘Your son came home and had a meal.’ I told them, ‘If you knew that, why didn’t you arrest him?’ They said a bomb was about to explode, so I had to leave immediately."
According to intelligence reports, Adil had left for Pakistan in 2018 after becoming involved with extremists, entering on a study visa. Authorities believe he re-entered India via the Line of Control (LoC) in 2024.
Following the Pahalgam attack, Adil’s family has been caught in a whirlwind of arrests. His father, Waleem Mohammad Thoker, his brothers, Jahir and Arshlam, and his cousins, Julankar and Sajjad, are all in custody, while his mother was briefly detained. Bano expressed her frustration: “My house has been destroyed, my family is in custody, and now I have nothing. How long will the neighbors feed me?” Holding a photo of her son, she added that the police sketches of the suspect did not resemble Adil.
In Guree village, a tight-knit community of around 4,000 residents, there is still shock over Adil’s alleged involvement in the attack. Hafeez, a local shopkeeper and neighbor, remembered Adil as a serious student focused on his studies, pursuing a master's degree from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) after graduating from Government Degree College in Khanabal. "He wasn’t very social, just focused on his studies," Hafeez said.
Tariq Ahmad, another village resident, called for the release of Adil’s detained relatives, urging authorities to consider the family's long-standing community ties. (Reported by Times of India)
