Around 2:30 pm, the rat-a-tat of firearms broke the silence of Baisaran Meadows, a picturesque area in the south Kashmir slopes of Pahalgam renowned as “mini Switzerland.”

Cries for assistance reverberated through the valley moments later as frightened relatives hurried to the aid of loved ones who were motionless and covered in blood. A calm day swiftly became one of the most depressing days for civilians in Jammu and Kashmir in recent memory.

A party of around 40 visitors were encircled by heavily armed terrorists who emerged from the forests of Baisaran, a meadow perched atop a hill.

The attackers began shooting randomly at the visitors, killing many and wounding at least twenty.

According to witnesses, the visitors were left as sitting ducks as the few locals who depend on tourism for a living fled for safety as soon as the bullets began to fly.

“My husband was shot in the head… he was shot for not being a Muslim,” a female victim phoned PTI to say.

The unnamed lady begged for assistance in transporting the wounded to the hospital.

The lady begged furiously, “Bhaiyya, please save my husband,” or mere husband ko bacha lo.

A witness who supplies horses to visitors told AFP that the gunman deliberately targeted guys.

“I cannot say how many, but the militants came out of the forest near an open small meadow and started firing,” a witness told AFP.

Speaking under anonymity, the witness said that the gunman “very clearly spared women and kept shooting at men.”

“Sometimes single shot and sometimes many bullets” they said.

“It was like a storm.”

In the meanwhile, Pallavi, a Karnataka native, said that the incident “felt like a bad dream” since her husband was slain as she and their kid watched. They were assaulted by “three to four people,” she told India Today. “Kill me too, I told them. ‘I won’t murder you,’ one expressed. Tell Modi about this.

Reactions to the terrorist assault on a group of tourists on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at Pahalgam, in the Anantnag region of Jammu & Kashmir.

A video that surfaced from the Pahalgam assault scene showed a number of individuals wounded and laying still on the ground, while female visitors were crying and searching for their loved ones.

Some were receiving assistance from locals because they were too surprised to respond.

Other visitors left the resort town for safer locations as soon as word of the assault spread, leaving Pahalgam’s streets and highways looking desolate.

Authorities had to call in helicopters to evacuate the wounded since the renowned meadows can only be reached on foot or on horseback.

However, locals used their ponies to carry some of the wounded down before the helicopters could reach the area.

While they called for further help to transport the wounded tourists on their shoulders to the closest motorable spot, the local tour guides and ponywallahs comforted the survivors.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said on X that the number of fatalities is still being determined. “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” he said.

“I’m in complete astonishment. This is a heinous assault on our guests. This attack’s perpetrators are cruel, animalistic, and deserving of disdain. Words of censure are insufficient. CM Abdullah expressed his condolences to the families of the departed.

The Amarnath base camp in Pahalgam was the scene of a terror incident in 2000 that left over 30 people dead and 60 wounded.

An assault on pilgrims in Sheshnag a year later claimed 13 lives and wounded 15, while another attack in the Pahalgam region in 2002 claimed 11 lives.

In 2017, a terror assault murdered eight pilgrims who were returning home from the Amarnath sanctuary.

near May of last year, militants opened fire on a Rajasthani tourist couple at Yannar near Pahalgam, injuring them.

The event occurs as Kashmir, which has been struggling with militancy for years, is seeing a spike in visitor visits.

Additionally, the 38-day pilgrimage to Amarnath is set to start on July 3.

The two routes—the 14-km shorter but steep Baltal route in Ganderbal district and the traditional 48-km Pahalgam route in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district—are used by thousands of pilgrims from all across the nation to reach the Amarnath cave shrine.

In addition to serving as a campground for hikers wishing to continue their journey up to Tulian Lake, Baisaran is a popular tourist destination in Pahalgam.