'Firing Lasted 10 Mins, Saw Smoke Rising': Eyewitnesses Recount Pahalgam Horror

'We thought someone burst crackers, or maybe a fight had erupted. Later, we saw smoke rising,' said one eyewitness.

In Kashmir, it has been a truism among the security agencies that terrorists don’t attack tourists. That impression now lies shattered.

(Photo: Faizan Mir/ Altered by Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Rohit Kumar Singh, a tourist from Uttar Pradesh, was just 20 feet from the site of the deadly attack in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam on 22 April, Tuesday.

“We didn’t even look over the shoulder to see what was happening,” he told The Quint. “We just ran towards the gate which was only four feet wide—and all of us were pushing each other so we could go through."

The killing of around two dozen tourists in Baisaran, a beautiful meadow surrounded by dense forests full of Himalayan pine trees in South Kashmir’s famous Pahalgam resort, has brought home an ugly reminder about the precarity of human life in the region.

According to security officials, hundreds of tourists had gathered on a clearing inside Baisaran. The road leading to the meadow is arduous, and tourists generally mount on the ponies to reach this popular destination.

It was then that the terrorists hurtled down the forest trail, spraying the fire indefinitely upon the tourists, killing at least 26 of them.

'We Had Bloodied Bodies Coming One After Another'

Waseem Khan, a private security personnel who was also present at the site, told The Quint that there were around 2,000 tourists at the spot at the time of firing which lasted for 10 minutes.

"Initially, we thought someone burst crackers, or maybe a fight had erupted between people. But later, we saw smoke rising and the commotion building up. We rushed to the place and saw dead bodies and injured people."

Waseem Khan

The victims hail from 11 different states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.

One of the deceased was a foreign national from Batwali Ropandi in Nepal. Earlier, there were reports of the death of an Emirati national, but senior security forces told The Quint that the individual was alive.

The victims also include Manish Ranjan, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer from Hyderabad, who was on a Leave Travel Concession (LTC) visit to Kashmir; Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, an Indian Navy officer from Haryana; and Tagehalying, an Indian Air Force employee from Arunachal Pradesh.

Security forces in the Valley have been heightened after the attack. 

(Photo: Faizan Mir/The Quint)

Inside Government Medical College and Associated Hospital, Anantnag, where some of the victims were evacuated, officials described scenes of complete chaos on Tuesday evening.

"Everything was a mess. We had bloodied bodies coming one after another. Some had bullet injuries in the abdomen. Others were shot in the shoulder. At least one patient had also suffered a heart attack. He was later operated upon. But he is in a very critical condition."

Senior medical official

Outside the Anantnag hospital, many local Kashmiris had assembled, having helped evacuate the injured and accompanied them to hospital. A group of locals had also gathered outside the hospital to donate blood for the victims.

Private security personnel Khan himself took at least one tourist to the Government Medical College and Associated Hospital, Anantnag. “They were stricken by the horror of it, shouting and screaming. The hospital is 5 kms away from the site. Later, a chopper took all of them to Srinagar for further treatment,” he added.

Bashir Ahmad, a local farmer from Pahalgam, added people in Kashmir are "devastated" by the killings.

"We denounce this massacre in the strongest terms. We want it to be investigated not just by the national authorities but also by the international agencies. There hasn’t been such an incident in Kashmir in the past five years. We are perturbed as to how it happened all of a sudden. We don’t know who is behind all this."

Bashir Ahmad, a local farmer from Pahalgam.

Targeted Killings and Sectarian Horror

Security officials said that the assailants ascertained the religious identity of the victims first, who were all males, before shooting them. This is corroborated by a mobile phone video from the site, in which the wife of one of the victims is desperately seeking help. She pointed out that the terrorists first made sure that her husband “was a non-Muslim. ”

“I was sitting here and eating bhelpuri and one person came and shot him,” said the woman in the video. “She thought he was not a Muslim and he shot him.”

In the same clip, another woman in bright pink kurta and blue jeans is pleading with the local ponywallas to save her husband’s life. On the cobbled walkway beside her, a man is lying dead, his clothes stripped— indicating that terrorists are likely to have forced the man to disrobe to confirm his religious identity.

In Kashmir, it has been a truism among the security agencies that terrorists don’t attack tourists. That impression now lies shattered. There have been a few smaller attacks over the last few years, but none as severe as this one on 22 April.

Just last year in May, militants had opened fire at Tabrez Aslam Khan and his wife Farah, a Muslim tourist couple from Jaipur in Pahalgam.

Empty streets in Pahalgam the day after the attack.

(Photo: Faizan Mir/The Quint)

The 22 April carnage may well turn out to be a paradigm-shifting event. It counts as the deadliest attack in Kashmir since October 2001 bombings outside the J&K Legislative Assembly, which led to the killing of 38 people. But the spate of such attacks in early 2000s was part of the resurgence led by fidayeen (self-sacrificing) modules sponsored by the Jaish-e-Muhammad group.

By contrast, the April 22 killings took place amid a booming tourist season and a largely peaceful political climate. J&K is currently in its sixth month under the government of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Heightened Security

On Wednesday, 23 April, the entire Kashmir valley witnessed a complete shutdown. In Srinagar, political parties such as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) organised a protest march at Lal Chowk. Such scenes were previously unseen in Kashmir Valley. Previously, only the killings of militant leaders or civilians targeted by security forces had provoked such a widespread response.

A protest march in Kashmir on the night of 22 April.

(Photo: Faizan Mir/The Quint)

Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, a young MLA associated with PDP, told The Quint that the attack was an “act of war” upon the Kashmiris as a community.

It is more hurtful to us than it is to the tourists. It is unfortunate that at a time when Kashmir was regaining its normalcy period that such an attack took place and now threatens to reverse all the gains. It will significantly alter the political dynamics of this place now.

Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, PDP MLA

On 23 April, the UT administration had heightened the security across the region. This reporter was stopped by the police at Sangam area of Anantnag and prevented from proceeding further towards Baisaran, where the massacre had taken place. Officers, visibly grim, said they had strict instructions to restrict media movement.

Tourism Collapses Overnight

In Awantipora, another volatile part of South Kashmir, tourist groups were being evacuated with the help of J&K Police’s Special Operations group (SOG) units.

Some local hoteliers and tour operators said they have offered free lodging to the tourists, so they can stay until their plans to leave Kashmir Valley are finalised.

(Photo: Faizan Mir/The Quint)

At Chersoo area, The Quint saw a tourist family from Gujarat who were surrounded by half a dozen SOG personnel and escorted into minivans bound for Srinagar airport.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he was heartbroken over the sudden retreat of tourists from Kashmir.

I’ve directed the administration to facilitate traffic between Srinagar & Jammu allowing tourist vehicles to leave. This will have to be done in a controlled & organised way because the road is still unstable in places and we are also working hard to clear all the stranded vehicles. We will not be able to permit completely free movement of vehicles at the moment & we hope that everyone will cooperate with us.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah

Amid a surge in flight bookings, airlines hiked ticket prices dramatically. By Wednesday afternoon, a Srinagar-Delhi flight was averaging Rs 38,000. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has since scheduled additional flights between Mumbai, Delhi, and Srinagar.

Some local hoteliers and tour operators said they have offered free lodging to the tourists, so they can stay until their plans to leave Kashmir Valley are finalised.

“I have arranged four rooms for the stranded tourists,” said Abdul Wahid Malik, owner of Hotel New Park, located at the famous Boulevard Road near Dal Lake in Srinagar. “Yesterday, a family was stranded at Aishmuqam area and we got them to stay here.”

As Kashmir struggles to grapple with the aftermath of the violence the question that hangs heavy is not just who orchestrated the massacre—but what future now awaits a region yearning for peace.

(Shakir Mir is an independent journalist whose work delves into the intersection of conflict, politics, history and memory in J&K. He tweets at @shakirmir. Faizan Mir is an independent multimedia journalist. He tweets at @faizanmirtweets.)