On the morning of 27 February 1990, Srinagar’s old quarters stirred as usual. For Naveen Saproo, a young government employee from Habba Kadal, it would become the last walk of his life. At twenty-nine, with a steady government job and the hopes of his Kashmiri Pandit family resting on him, Naveen embodied the quiet resilience of ordinary men trying to live through extraordinary times.

That afternoon, as he returned near Kanikadal, gunmen intercepted him. In broad daylight, bullets ended a life that had no connection to politics or conflict. Witnesses remembered a Kashmiri Pandit woman, passing by, begging the attackers to spare him. Her cries went unanswered. The shots echoed across the narrow lanes, leaving behind silence.

His family never received justice. No proper case was registered, and even a death certificate was never issued. What they carried instead was the weight of his lifelong absence.

Naveen Saproo’s story is not only about one young man lost. It is about a family torn apart and a community forced to witness the worst humiliation.