A pall of gloom descended on Khanday residence at Gulshan Nagar Byepass after the family received body of their son Ifshan Afzal Khanday, 41, a prominent hotelier of Kashmir who died in Chandigarh on Sunday evening of a massive cardiac arrest.
Ifshan, owner of Alpine Ridge Hotel, had gone to Chandigarh and was staying at a hotel there. The local police informed the family about his demise.
Ifshan, an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, is survived by parents, a young brother, wife and two children. His elder son is 11 and younger daughter six.
He is son of prominent businessmen of valley, Muhammad Afzal Khanday, and son-in-law of Niyaz Ahmad Shah.
People from all walks of life thronged the residence of the deceased remembered by his friends and acquaintances for his gentleness. Among those who offered Jinazah to the deceased and later paid condolences to his family were both mainstream and separatist leaders, members of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry and hoteliers.
He was laid to rest at a graveyard at Gulshan Nagar.
Emotional scenes were witnessed at the residence as scores of people along with his family members and relatives were waiting the whole day for the body to be flown from Chandigarh in an air ambulance.
Some family members had rushed to Chandigarh to bring back his body.
Meanwhile, National Conference working president Omar Abdullah on Monday expressed grief over Ifshan’s demise.
Omar offered condolences to the bereaved family and prayed for peace to the departed soul.
NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani, YNC provincial president Salman Ali Sagar, political secretary to working president Tanvir Sadiq, state spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu also expressed grief and sorrow over Ifshan’s demise.
‘A LOSS FOR TOURISM SECTOR’
The tourism department expressed shock over the sudden demise of Ifshan Khanday and remembered him as a “popular and promising hotelier”.
The department held a condolence meeting at its head office at the Tourist Reception Centre, in which all tourism officers and also private stakeholders participated.
The meeting termed Ifshan’s demise as a great loss to the tourism sector.
The director tourism Kashmir expressed sympathy with the bereaved family and prayed for the departed soul.