Went to Kabul to earn for daughter’s marriage, his body arrived instead

NEW DELHI - He went to Kabul to perform and earn some good money for his eldest daughter’s marriage, but little did Delhi-based tabla player Nawab Khan know that it would be his last journey. Khan is one of the Indians who died in the Kabul terror attack Friday.

“This was his first visit to Afghanistan. He went there to earn more and planned to use the money for the marriage of his eldest daughter. We are shocked,” said O.P. Shukla, Khan’s close friend, his voice choked with grief.

Sent by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Khan, his brother and nephew, who are also musicians, had gone to Kabul to give performances. They lived in Lakshmi Nagar in east Delhi.

Khan was the main bread earner of his eight-member family. He had six children - four daughters and two sons. His youngest son is studying in Class 5. His eldest son Ashu works in a call centre but it is a temporary job.

“We don’t know what is going to happen to his family now,” Shukla said as Khan’s son Ashu sat quietly in the waiting lounge of the Air Force station at Palam here waiting for his father’s body. The Indian government has sent a special aircraft to bring back the bodies of the Indians killed in Kabul.

Shukla said that Khan was scheduled to return Friday and was packing his bags in the guest house when the terror strike took place. “The roof of the guest house collapsed and my friend was crushed to death.”

Santosh Mehta, another friend of Khan, said they would take the body home and perform the last rites late in the evening.

ICCR president Karan Singh, expressing shock at the death of Khan, said they mourned losing the musician and are in touch with the family.