Pahalgam terror attack: Newly-married UP man among 26 killed; 'terrorists confirmed religious identity before shooting'

Security personnel stand guard after terrorists attacked a group of tourists at Pahalgam, in Anantnag district.

Survivors of the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam — one of the deadliest in recent years — revealed that the terrorists only targeted male tourists and asked for their religious identity first.

Shubham Dwivedi was among the 26 tourists killed in the terror attack near South Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Married just a couple of months ago, Shubham was at the grassland, dubbed ‘Mini Switzerland’, with his wife, in-laws and sister-in-law when armed terrorists started firing at the tourists milling around eateries.

One of the relatives of the deceased, a resident of Maharajpur town in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district, told Moneycontrol that the terrorists asked for the religion of the tourists before shooting them.

Several other media reports have confirmed that the terrorists – reportedly 5-6 in numbers – sought the religious identity of the tourists before opening fire at them.

“Shubham-Aishanya were wandering around the grassland, they were at a little distance from others (family members) when terrorists suddenly started firing… They were targeting male tourists,” the relative, on condition of anonymity, told Moneycontrol. He has been in regular touch with his elder brother through phone since Tuesday evening, after the attack took place.

An Anantnag Police official told Moneycontrol that the victim's body was being taken to Srinagar, from where it will be brought to Kanpur.

Shubham, a businessman from Uttar Pradesh, got married in February this year.

Baisaran – an off-the-road meadow ringed by dense pine forests and mountains – is accessible only by foot and is flocked by tourists across the country and world, particularly during summers.

The Resistance Front (TRF), identified as a shadow group of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility as news of the terror attack on tourists in Kashmir broke.

News agency PTI quoted officials saying it was possible the terror group could have crossed over from Kishtwar in Jammu and reached Baisaran through Kokernag in south Kashmir.

With Baisaran accessible only by foot or horses, choppers were deployed to evacuate the injured. The families of those killed and injured were taken to the government-owned Pahalgam Club under tight security. The entire district administration and police force was mobilised and ambulances pressed into service.

Union  Home Minister Amit Shah rushed to Srinagar, where he chaired a high-level security review meeting with Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha, Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Deka and Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan.

CRPF chief Gyanendra Pratap Singh, J&K Director General of Police Nalin Prabhatand some Army officials also joined the meeting through video conferencing.

Pahalgam town, which was teeming with tourists this morning, went into complete silence. Tourists began leaving in droves. The incident comes when Kashmir is witnessing a surge in tourist arrivals after reeling under militancy for years.

On February 14, 2019, 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack in south Kashmir’s Pulwama area. Since then, there have been other terror attacks but none as serious. More than 30 people were killed in an attack on Amarnath base camp in Pahalgam in 2000.

A year later, 13 people died in a strike on Amarnath pilgrims at Sheshnag while 11 persons were killed in another attack in 2002 in the Pahalgam area.

A tourist couple from Rajasthan was injured in a firing incident by terrorists at Yannar in Pahalgam in May last year. In March 2000 when then US president Bill Clinton was visiting India, terrorists killed 35 Sikhs in Chhattisinghpora in south Kasmir in March 2000.