Asawari Jagadale still remembers the sound of gunfire ripping through the meadows in Pahalgam’s Baisaran, and the moment armed men pulled her father from the tent where they were hiding. “They asked him to step outside and recite Islamic verses,” she told Newslaundry. “When he couldn’t, they shot him three times.” Her uncle, Kaustubh, was also shot but survived. The gunmen spared the women, she said, and targeted only the men.
On Tuesday, at least 26 tourists were killed and 17 injured in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Kashmir in decades. At least three of the survivors and families of six deceased say the attackers deliberately targeted men, demanding they identify their religion and recite Islamic verses. Those who failed to comply were shot on the spot.
The highest number of casualties was reported from Maharashtra, with six people losing their lives. Karnataka and Gujarat followed with three deaths each. Two individuals who died were from West Bengal. There was one death each from Madhya Pradesh, Kashmir, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Kerala, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nepal. Among the victims, there were 23 Hindus, one Muslim, and two Christians.
Shortly after getting married last week, 26-year-old Naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal from Haryana was on a honeymoon trip with his wife Himanshi in J&K’s Pahalgaum, where he was killed in a terrorist attack on Tuesday.
Among the victims were three friends from Mumbai’s Dombivli – Atul Mone, Sanjay Lele and Hemant Joshi – who arrived with their families in Kashmir for a holiday, just three days before the incident.
Nilesh Mhatre, a close friend of the deceased tourists, said, “The attackers separated our three friends from their wives and children. They lined them up with a few other men and demanded that they recite Islamic verses. Then they ordered them to remove their pants and asked, ‘Tum Hindu ho na?’ [Are you Hindu?] before shooting them dead.”
A Christian family of four from Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh was also present in Baisaran when the attack occurred. Susheel Nathaniel, 58, was killed in the attack while on a vacation with his wife Jennifer, 54, son Austin, 25, and daughter Akansha, 30. Akansha, who works as a bank manager in Surat, sustained a gunshot wound to her leg.
Indira Dawar, Susheel’s cousin, told Newslaundry, “On Tuesday evening, my nephew Austin called Vikas, Susheel’s younger brother, and informed him that Susheel had been shot dead in the terrorist attack. Austin said that Susheel had tried to hide his family to protect them. The terrorists forced him to kneel and demanded that he recite Islamic verses. When he told them that he was a Christian and didn’t know the verses, they shot him dead.”
Additionally, Jyoti Zarunge, who was part of a tourist group of around 68 people from Pune, told Newslaundry how they escaped the attack on Tuesday.
“We had arrived in Kashmir on April 18 and had already visited places like Gulmarg and Srinagar. On Tuesday, we were scheduled to travel to Pahalgam. My sister-in-law, Rohini Gaikwad, was in a different vehicle and had reached before us. Just about 200 metres before the site of the attack, they heard gunshots, and people started running in panic. Their driver quickly responded and drove them to safety at a nearby hotel, where they stayed for three to four hours. Later, the Army escorted them back safely to Srinagar.”
Newslaundry spoke to Naveen Patel, a tourist hailing from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, who also escaped the attack.
“I arrived in Kashmir three days before the incident, along with three friends from Chhindwara and Nagpur. We were on horses, heading toward the ‘Mini Switzerland’ tourist site to have some bhel, when the firing began. At first, I thought someone was bursting firecrackers. But about 20 seconds later, the firing turned indiscriminate. I quickly hid behind a tree and, by sheer luck, managed to escape. Later, Army and BSF personnel arrived and escorted us to a safe location.”
Manish Ranjan, a Section Officer with the Intelligence Bureau, was also among those killed in the attack. He was posted in Hyderabad and had been on vacation in Kashmir with his wife and children. Dilip Desale from Mumbai was also killed in the attack.
Also killed was Sudip Neupane, a 27-year-old from Butwal, Nepal. He was the nephew of Dhadhiraj Neupane, the chairman of the sub-metropolitan Butwal ward. Dhadhiraj, while speaking to a Nepali news outlet, said that Sudip was walking on a road near Baisaran when the gunmen asked him which religious group he belonged to and then opened fire on him.
Among the 17 injured tourists was Vinay Bhai, a resident of Gujarat, who is now admitted to an army hospital in Srinagar. Vinay’s niece, Khushi Rathore, told Newslaundry over the phone that she, with her family of 20, had come from Bhavnagar in Gujarat to Srinagar on March 17 to attend the Morari Bapu ki Ramkatha. The family spent four days in Srinagar. On 22 April, when they saw good weather, they decided to go to Pahalgam for sightseeing.
“It was 2 pm. We had just reached the Baisaran Valley, and I was clicking pictures of my family members. Within five minutes, two tall men wearing jackets over their kurta and their faces uncovered emerged from the bushes behind me and started firing,” she said.
Rathore and her family members hid under the benches.
“Initially, I thought they were army officers. But when they hit two civilians in front of me, I realised they were terrorists. Wo direct goli chala rahe the. Kuch dekh nhi rahe the (They were shooting indiscriminately). Those who hid themselves were saved, but the ones who were running around were shot,” she said.
Within a couple of minutes, Rathore and her family members rushed to the entry gate of the valley and returned to their hotel in Srinagar via car.
Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a 28-year-old resident of Hapatnar in Jammu and Kashmir, who worked as a ponywalla for tourists, was killed in the attack at Baisaran Valley.
His maternal uncle, Naseer Ahmad, told Newslaundry, “He left home at 7 in the morning with his two horses to take tourists to Pahalgam, but he never returned. He was killed in the terrorist attack while he was at Baisaran Valley. When we lost contact with him, his father went to the Aishmuqam police station and submitted a complaint. It was only around 10 at night that we received confirmation of his death.”
Ahmad said survivors present at the attack site told the police that Shah had confronted the terrorists and asked them why they were killing innocent people, after which three bullets were pumped into him. Shah is survived by his wife, parents, and three sisters.
Tage Hailyang, a resident of Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh and with the Indian Air Force, was killed on Tuesday in the attack. He had travelled to Pahalgam with his wife for a vacation.
His brother, Tage Mali, told Newslaundry, “He had gone to Kashmir with his wife for a holiday. They arrived on Tuesday morning, and by the afternoon, he was killed in the attack. I have come here to collect his mortal remains.”
(With inputs from Ankita Dhar Karmakar and Megha Bhardwaj)
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