26 civilians, mainly Hindu tourists, have been murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pahalgam (Jammu and Kashmir, India). The attack occurred at 14:30 on 22nd April 2025, in the scenic Baisaran meadow. Eyewitnesses reported how the camouflaged terrorists appeared from the nearby forest, singling out Hindu men by asking whether they could recite Islamic verses, then shooting them point blank when they couldn’t.
Asavari Jagdale, whose father Santosh Jadale was murdered, stated, “They asked my father to recite an Islamic verse. 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.” The women who were spared have recounted how the terrorists were clear in the fact that Hindus were their targets.
This attack is the deadliest terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019 when 40 military personnel were killed in Pulwama. In 2024, nine Hindu pilgrims, including children, were brutally killed by terrorists in nearby Reasi (Jammu).
24 Indian citizens were killed; Atul S. Moni, Sanjay L. Lali, Dileep Dasali, Hemant S. Joshi, Santosh Jaghda and Kastuba Ganvotay from Maharashtra; Bharat Bushan, Manju Nath Rao, Madhusudan Somisetty from Karnataka; Shaileshbhai H. Kalathia, Yatesh Parmar and his son Sumit Parmar from Gujarat. Sameer Guhar and Bitan Adhikari from W. Bengal. Additionally, Sushil Nathyal (Madhya Pradesh), Syed A H Shah (Jammu and Kashmir), Vinay Narwal (Haryana), Neeraj Udhwani (Uttarakhand), Shubham Dwivedi (Uttar Pradesh), Manish Ranjan (Bihar), N. Ramachandra (Kerala), Dinesh Agarwal (Chandigarh), J. Sachandra Moli (Andhra Pradesh), Tage Hailyang (Arunachal Pradesh) and Sudeep Neupane from Nepal were also named amongst the dead.