Pahalgam terrorists asked UP man to recite Islamic verse, shot him, then told wife... (2025)

Kanpur,UPDATED: Apr 23, 2025 15:08 IST

What began as a fun outing for tourists at Baisaran, a scenic meadow surrounded by dense forests in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam, quickly turned into a massacre as terrorists opened fire, with eyewitness accounts detailing how victims were targeted based on their religion.

Kanpur resident Shubham Dwivedi, 28, and his wife were among the tourists present. According to Tiwari's family, the terrorists asked if the couple were Muslim and demanded they recite the Kalma, an Islamic declaration of faith.

Speaking to AajTak/India Today, Shubham’s cousin said, "Bhaiya and bhabhi were eating Maggi, when two people in uniform came to them, and asked are you Muslim, if yes, then recite the Kalma.”

When they did not give a satisfactory answer, the gunmen shot Shubham, his cousin recounted. “They shot bhaiya in the head, and then pointed the gun at bhabhi and said ‘tell your government what we have done’.”

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Shubham had been married for just two months. His father, Sanjay Dwivedi, a cement businessman, said Shubham was in Kashmir with his wife and nine family members on a week-long holiday, visiting Sonamarg and Gulmarg before reaching Pahalgam.

Video shows Shubham playing cards with his family members the night before the attack.

Around noon on Tuesday, Shubham and his wife went horseback riding — their final outing together.

Dwivedi related the account his daughter-in-law gave him of the attack: "When the terrorists killed Shubham, his wife said that kill me along with him."

But the terrorists refused. "He said ‘I won’t kill you, I am leaving you alive so that you can go and tell your government what we did’," Dwivedi claimed.

Another victim, Santosh Jagdale, a businessman from Pune, was among the 26 people shot and killed in Baisaran meadow. His daughter, Asavari Jagdale, described how the terrorists specifically targeted male tourists after demanding they identify their religion.

The militants came to their tent and asked her father to come out, she said. "They said 'Chaudhari tu bahar aa ja'."

She further stated that the terrorists blamed the tourists for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and made statements denying that Kashmiri militants kill innocent people, women, and children.

"They then asked my father to recite an Islamic verse (probably the Kalma). 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. They shot several other males who were at the spot. There was nobody to help. No police or army, who reached 20 minutes later. Even the locals there were reciting the Islamic verse."

Asavari, her mother, and another female relative were spared by the attackers. According to reports, locals and security forces later evacuated them from the scene.

Waheed, a tour guide who arrived at the scene after the shooting, told AFP that he helped transport some of the wounded away on horseback. He described seeing several men lying dead.

Another witness, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the attackers were "clearly sparing women."

With PTI inputs

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