KOLKATA/SURAT: Pahalgam tragedy survivors said on Thursday the terrorists recorded the massacre on their bodycams while they went about killing the tourists one after another.
Sohini (37), the widow of Florida-based techie Bitan Adhikary (40), is yet to come to terms with her husband’s death. “I can’t wipe those nightmarish moments from my memory. The gunman who shot my husband down had a video camera strapped to his forehead. It meant they were recording the acts or may have been streaming it for some persons to watch,” she said. Bitan was held at gunpoint and after he kept quiet when asked to reveal his religion, he was asked to recite the first kalma. When he said he couldn’t, admitting that he was a Hindu, he was shot dead.
Recounting the moments at Baisaran Valley before the massacre, Sohini said: “We were having a good time in the valley when we saw some people coming over and asking questions. Suddenly, we heard gunshots. Everyone ducked down as the militants came up to us and asked our identities. An elderly man remained silent. He was shot in the head,” she recalled. “Just when we thought we had survived, my husband was shot. He slumped to the ground. At first, I thought he had fainted and could be revived.”
Another survivor, Naksh (10), also revealed that the terrorists recorded the killings on their bodycams. Naksh’s father, Shailesh Kalathiya, a banker at SBI’s Kandivali branch in Mumbai, was among the 26 victims. The boy, along with his sister, Neeti, and mother, Shital, survived the massacre.
Recounting the horror, Naksh said: “We were hungry, so we went to eat. Suddenly, gunfire erupted, and all ran for their lives. The gunmen were wearing caps fitted with cameras.”
