Budgam Martyr's Widow Calls For Peace Between India, Pakistan

"Those baying for war should fight it themselves," says Vijeta Mandavgane, the widow of Squadron Leader Ninad Mandavgane, the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot who was killed in the Mi-17 crash in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday. Ninad's wife paid her last respects to her husband and called for peach between India and Pakistan.

“We do not want war. You do not realise the damage a war inflicts on people… No other (Sqn Ldr) Ninad should be lost from either side,” Vijeta said in Nashik

Sqn Ldr Ninad had joined the IAF in 2009. He is survived by his wife, their two-year-old daughter, a younger brother and his parents, who are both retired bankers. Vijeta, who cremated her martyred husband in Nashik on Friday, has emphasized that those seeking war from the comfort of social media should have the guts to go to the border and fight the war themselves.

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“The way things are being flared up over the social media is horrible. Nothing is going to come out of that. I would request those social media warriors to stop doing it and would tell them, if you have so much ‘Josh’ then go join the force and see how it feels,” Vijeta said while interacting with media, New Indian Express reported.

“He had decided that he wanted to join the armed forces very early in the life and achieved his goal. He even discarded chance to become a commercial pilot to join the Air Force,” added the slain officer’s father Anil Mandavgane.

The other Squadron Leader Sidhharth Vishisht, who also died in the Budgam crash, was also cremated with full military honours in Chandigarh on Friday.

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