NEW DELHI: In one of the most brutal terror strikes in recent memory, 28 tourists were gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday, among them, two businessmen from Pune whose families are now shattered.
For 26-year-old Asavari Jagdale, what began as a summer escape to the stunning valleys of Kashmir turned into a nightmare that ended with the cold-blooded murder of her father, Santosh Jagdale, and her uncle, Kaustubh Ganbote. Both men were among a group of five tourists from Pune who had travelled to the idyllic ‘Mini Switzerland’ in Betaab Valley.
But it wasn’t just random violence. Asavari said the terrorists “specifically targeted male tourists after asking whether they were Hindu or Muslim.”
“They said, ‘Chaudhari tu bahar aa ja’,” she recalled, words that have now etched themselves in her memory forever.
What followed was pure horror.
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Dressed like local police, the gunmen stormed the area, descending from the hills as tourists scrambled for cover. Asavari and her group ran for a nearby tent. Inside, they lay flat, praying the crossfire would end. But there was no crossfire, only execution.
First, the attackers opened fire on another tent. Then they came for Santosh.
“They asked my father to come out. Then accused us of supporting Prime Minister Modi. They claimed they don’t kill innocent people (women, children) as if to justify what they were about to do,” she said.
When Santosh failed to recite an Islamic verse, what Asavari believes was the Kalma, they shot him three times: once in the head, once behind the ear, and once in the back.
Her uncle Kaustubh, crouched next to her, was riddled with bullets next.
“There was nobody to help. No police, no army, they arrived 20 minutes too late,” she said. “Even some locals nearby began reciting Islamic verses aloud.”
Two foreigners, one from the UAE and another from Nepal, also died in the massacre, along with two local residents. More than a dozen others were wounded in what is now being seen as a calculated and religiously targeted terror attack.
Asavari, her mother Pragati, and another female relative were spared. Local pony handlers helped them flee and later, Indian Army personnel evacuated them to safety.
“We were taken to Pahalgam Club after a medical check-up. But nothing can erase what we saw,” Asavari said.
What was supposed to be a family vacation has now become a memory scarred by loss, rage, and unanswered questions.
