The wife of a tourist who was killed in a bloody attack by militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir has recalled her last moments with him, enjoying the sunshine.
Militants opened fire on a crowd of tourists in a beauty spot near the Himalayas yesterday, leaving 27 people dead in a beauty spot just above the tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir.
One victim’s wife told Metro her husband had looked around just moments before the gunfire broke out and said, ‘This is real paradise’ as he played with their children.
‘It was such a beautiful day. Then suddenly, two or three men with guns appeared out of nowhere and started firing. My husband was hit before he could even react,’ she said.
‘I screamed, grabbed my children, and ran into the forest. My kids and I are still in shock. We can’t understand what happened to us.
‘What will we tell our family back home? They were waiting for us to return with memories, not this nightmare.’
Witnesses recalled screams echoing through the forest as panic spread. It took locals, horsemen, and vendors several hours to carry the injured down the slopes due to the absence of immediate medical help.
Tens of thousands of armed police and soldiers have since been sent across the region, and additional checkpoints have been set up.
Police called it a ‘terror attack’ and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. But families of the dead, and thousands of others, have taken to the streets to protest the attack.
Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal was one of the 27 people killed. His wife spoke to Metro today and said: ‘I couldn’t even scream. Vinay just fell beside me.
‘I didn’t understand what was happening—one moment we were laughing, and the next, my world was gone.’
Local horseman Bilal Ahmad, 25, said he was guiding a family to a picnic spot when the bullets started.
At first, he thought it was firecrackers, before he saw people falling.
‘I pulled two kids and hid behind a big stone. I told them not to move. I saw a tourist get shot while running,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen anything so terrifying. I just kept praying and hoped we would make it down alive.’
Mohammad Shafi, 42, a snack vendor, told Metro: ‘Blood was everywhere. I didn’t know if I would survive. I have worked here for many years, and nothing like this has ever happened.
‘Those people were innocent. They came here for peace, not to die.’
Farooq Khan, 60, another horseman, said witnesses used shawls to carry the injured away. He recalled a young boy holding his dead uncle, crying quietly: ‘We carried that man on horseback. We were all crying. We forgot our fear. All we wanted was to save as many lives as we could.’
A local vendor intervened to help save people in the line of fire before he too was killed. A neighbour of the man said: ‘When the attack began, he did not run. He helped families find shelter and tried to distract the gunmen.
‘That’s how he was shot. He could have saved himself, but he chose to save others. His death shows the real heart of Kashmir.’
The attack has shocked Kashmir and triggered widespread condemnation. Markets across most of the country remained shut on Wednesday. Trade bodies, political parties, transport unions, and civil society groups took to the streets demanding justice.
Bashir Khan, 44, a taxi driver in Pahalgam, said drivers came together to offer free rides to survivors and families.
‘This is our pain too. We are not rich, but we have hearts. This is not what Kashmir stands for. Whoever did this is not one of us. This massacre has broken us all,’ he said.
Ghulam Nabi, 50, who sells shawls near Pahalgam, stood with candles at a silent protest. “I closed my shop today to show that we do not support this. Those tourists were our guests. They trusted us.
‘They ate our food, rode our horses. And now they’re gone. How will we ever face the rest of India? We Kashmiris want peace. We are tired of blood. We want people to remember us for our love, not violence.”
Aijaz Ahmad, 32, a rickshaw driver from Srinagar, said: ‘This is not just a crime, it is a betrayal of everything we stand for. Kashmir has always been known for its hospitality. These killers tried to take that away. But we won’t let them. Every Kashmiri heart is weeping, but also standing strong.
‘We want justice, and we want peace. Today, we’re giving free rides to tourists. They shouldn’t feel frightened. They are our guests, and we will protect them.’
Kashmir was finally seeing a tourism revival after years of shutdowns due to COVID-19, political unrest, and violence, but locals fear this violent attack could hurt them again.
Zahid Mir, 28, who runs a hotel in Srinagar, said: ‘The season had just started. We were fully booked for the next few weeks. Now, every guest is checking out.
‘Phones are ringing with cancellations. Who will come now? We are not terrorists. We just want to earn a living. This attack has hit our hearts and our homes.’
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