New Delhi: Five members of a family from Pune were also targeted in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday afternoon. The gunmen fired indiscriminately on tourists gathered in a meadow. The family of five were attacked when they were posing for photographs in traditional Kashmiri attire.
One of the surviving family members, the daughter of a Pune businessman who was killed in the terror attack, recalled how it all happened. She said that the terrorists asked the tourists to reveal their religious identity — Hindu or Muslim — and after establishing it, singled out the Hindus and gunned them down.
She said the terrorists emerged from nowhere and some opened fire on the tourists, while some others caught hold of the Hindu men present there and asked them to recite an Islamic verse (probably the Kalma).
“When he (my father) failed to recite the Islamic verse, they pumped three bullets into him, one on the head, one behind the ear and another in the back,” she said. “My uncle was next to me. The terrorists fired four to five bullets into him. They shot several other males who were at the spot. There was nobody to help. No police or army, who reached 20 minutes later. Even the locals there were reciting the Islamic verse,” she told PTI.
The family was on a holiday at the spot when they heard firing from “people who wore clothes similar to those of local police” coming down from the nearby hill. They had printed masks that resembled what army personnel wear, she claimed.
On Tuesday afternoon, the lush meadow of Baisaran — nicknamed “mini Switzerland” — turned into a site of horror after 3-4 terrorists fired at tourists, killing 26 of them at the spot.
Fadnavis assures help
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to the families of people from the state who were attacked by terrorists in Pahalgam and assured them help.
The Maharashtra government has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to arrange a special flight to bring back the bodies of five state residents who were killed in the attack, according to a statement released by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office on Wednesday.
