Pahalgam Terrorist Attack: Pune businessman shot dead after failing to recite Kalma

Santosh Jagdale, a businessman from Pune, and his family were hiding inside a tent when gunfire and cries for help broke out at a popular tourist spot in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

The chaos began when they heard gunshots coming from people “wearing clothes similar to local police,” said his daughter Asavari. She, her mother Pragati, and her father Santosh, along with other tourists, rushed to a nearby tent. At first, they thought it was a gunfight between attackers and security forces. But the gunfire kept getting closer, and the attackers even fired at a nearby tent.

Then, someone shouted a chilling order: “Chaudhary, tu bahar aa jaa (Chaudhary, you come outside).” The attackers pulled her father out of the tent and accused him of supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Asavari said that although there were many tourists around, the gunmen specifically asked the men whether they were Hindu or Muslim. “They asked my father to recite an Islamic verse, probably the Kalma. When he couldn’t, they shot him three times — once in the head, once behind the ear, and once in the back,” she said. The gunmen then shot her uncle multiple times. She said police and security forces reached the site about 20 minutes later.

Not knowing whether her father and uncle were alive, Asavari, her mother, and another relative were evacuated from Pahalgam’s Baisaran Valley by locals and security personnel.

Santosh Jagdale was one of six people from Maharashtra who died in the attack, which killed 26 people in total. The other victims from Maharashtra were Atul Mane, Sanjay Lele, Hemant Joshi (all from Thane), Kaustubh Ganbote from Pune, and Dilip Dosale from Navi Mumbai.

Atul Mane, 45, worked as a Senior Section Engineer with Central Railways. His friend Vivekanand Samanta said they often travelled together on local trains and had planned the Pahalgam trip together.

Dilip Dosale was part of a 39-member tourist group from Navi Mumbai that had signed up for an organised trip to Jammu and Kashmir.

A couple from Nagpur, along with their son, managed to escape just before the attack began. “This happened right after we left the area. We heard gunshots for a long time, and everyone was trying to flee,” the man told ANI.

As the crowd rushed to get out through a narrow gate only four feet wide, his wife fell and fractured her leg and suffered another injury.

Those who couldn't escape had nowhere to hide in the vast open space.

The shooting happened at Baisaran Valley, often referred to as “mini Switzerland,” as tourists were enjoying themselves. Helicopters were used to airlift the injured from the area, which can only be reached on foot. Locals helped too, using their ponies to bring victims to safety.

This was the deadliest terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since the Pulwama incident in 2019. Among the 26 killed were two foreign nationals and two local residents. The Resistance Front (TRF), believed to be a front for the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.