Two days after the horrifying terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead and several injured, heart-wrenching testimonies continue to surface, offering grim details of how innocent tourists were targeted. Arathi, daughter of one of the victims, N Ramachandran a native of Kochi, recounted the terrifying moments that led to her father’s death in the Baisaran meadow of Kashmir on April 22.
“On hearing a gunshot, I asked my father what that sound was. He said he wasn’t sure. As we heard more gunshots, we started to run. We saw other people also running. It was chaos overall,” said Arathi, still shaken by the memory. “Suddenly, we saw a man coming with a gun. There were two to three groups beside us. We saw the man asking the group something, and then he was shooting at them.”
As panic set in, Arathi tried to warn her father. “I told my father that the man was coming towards us. My father was calm and said, ‘Let’s see what happens.’” What happened next would change her life forever.
“The man came towards us and said, ‘Kalma.’ When we said we didn’t understand what he was saying, the man shot my father,” Arathi recalled, her voice trembling.
The attack has been described as one of the deadliest on civilians in the Kashmir valley in recent years. It was not just an assault on individuals, but a targeted act of religious hatred, as multiple survivors, including Arathi, confirmed that the terrorists were asking people to identify their faith before opening fire.
The attack sparked national outrage, drawing strong condemnation from across political and social spectrums. In response, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the National Panchayati Raj Day in Madhubani, Bihar, assured the nation of unrelenting action against the perpetrators.
“On April 22, terrorists killed innocent people of the country in J-K’s Pahalgam… The country is in mourning and in pain following this incident. We stand with the families of the victims,” said PM Modi. “Today, from the soil of Bihar, India will identify, track, and punish every terrorist, their handlers, and their backers. We will pursue them to the end of the earth.”
He further vowed that the culprits would face consequences beyond imagination: “I want to say in clear words that these terrorists and those who conspired towards this attack will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine. The willpower of 140 crore Indians will now break the back of the masters of terror.”
The nation continues to mourn the victims of this unprovoked and inhuman act, while survivors like Arathi struggle to piece their lives back together in the shadow of tragedy.
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