California-based Himachal Pradesh’s Anjali Ryot was only a few hours away from her 30th birthday when her life was snuffed out on Wednesday, October 20, in a shootout between two gangs in Mexico’s Tulum. In fact, she was there with her husband to celebrate her birthday.
Anjali’s family in Himachal Pradesh was shattered when they were informed about her death. Her brother Ashish is now desperately trying to go to Mexico and coordinate with the authorities to bring her body to India for the last rites. He has urged the mayor of Tulum to speed up the procedure for his visa approval so that he may go to Mexico.
Anjali Ryot was killed along with another German tourist on Wednesday night in the crossfire, Californianewstimes.com news portal reported.
Ryot’s Instagram account listed her as a travel blogger from Himachal Pradesh, living in San Jose, California.
Ryot has been working as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer on LinkedIn since July. She was previously employed by Yahoo, the Californianewstimes.com report said.
The incident happened when Ryot and four other foreign tourists were dining on the terrace of La Malquerida restaurant when four men armed with assault rifles fired at an adjoining table in the premises around 10:30 pm, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.
The stray bullets hit the foreigners. Ryot and the German woman were killed, while the three others — from Germany and the Netherlands — were wounded. Authorities point to a confrontation between rival organised crime gangs. Ryot and her friends were just the collateral victims, it said.
The fight was between two rival groups that operate drug sales in the area, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Several drug cartels operate in the Mexican state, which is known for a lucrative retail drug market and as a landing spot for drug shipments, the Associated Press reported from Mexico City.
