A tourist accidentally filmed the attack by a terrorist last week while he was on a trip to Jammu & Kashmir's Pahalgam. Such shocking videos have emerged on social media. The 53-second clip has gone viral and instead captures a man or a tourist, to be specific, wearing a blue checked shirt, sunglasses, and a helmet as safety gear, taking and recording the zipline ride with a selfie stick, with the sound of bullets being fired in the background.
The man identified later as Rishi Bhatt of Ahmedabad is seen smiling and enjoying his ride; others on the ground run helter-skelter. As he neared the ground after completing the zipline ride, another tourist was gunned down, presumably after being hit by a bullet.
Bhatt further recalled to the news agency ANI how, in such a situation, he just removed his seat belt as soon as he knew about the firing.
"I took my wife and son and started running. We saw people hiding at a spot which was like a pit, so they could not be spotted easily. We hid there too. When the firing stopped a little after 8-10 minutes, we started running toward the main gate... The firing resumed, and four to five people were shot. Around 15-16 tourists were shot in front of us. When we reached the gate, we saw the local residents had already left. One pony guide helped us to leave the place...," he said.
He added, "The Army was present in the lower areas. There was no Army official at the main location."
The incident highlights how difficult it still is to keep Kashmir safe, even as the region tries to attract more tourists and build better infrastructure. Despite ongoing security efforts, the attack has raised serious questions about how well protected visitors really are and whether something like this could happen again.
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