Terrorists Asked Victims To Recite Religious Verses, Focused On Killing Men

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – Terrorists who killed 26 people in Kashmir separated the men from the women and children and asked the men their names before shooting them at close range, security officials and survivors said on April 23.

About 1,000 tourists and 300 local service providers were in the Baisaran Valley—known as “mini Switzerland” for its lush hilltop meadow surrounded by dense pine forests—when three gunmen launched the April 22 attack, the worst in India in nearly two decades. The heavily armed attackers roamed around the grasslands and fired 60 rounds of ammunition, but did not shoot women and children.

Asavari Jagdale, from Maharashtra, lost her father and uncle in the attack, Reuters reported. She told media that she and her family hid inside a nearby tent along with other tourists when the shooting started.

When the militants reached their tent, Asavari said they asked her father, Santosh Jagdale, to come out and recite an Islamic verse. “When he failed to do so, 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.”

Debasish Bhattacharyya, a Hindu who teaches at Assam University and who grew up in a Muslim neighborhood in the state, said he was familiar with Islamic verses.

“I knew the words and, at that moment, it was probably the only way to save our lives. Those who failed, were killed,” he told Reuters, adding that they fled when the gunmen left and trekked through a forest for two hours to survive.