Indian survivors of Kashmir attack say gunmen asked if they were Hindus and opened fire

KARNAL, India — When Aishanya and Shubham Dwivedi married in February, they began planning a vacation to Indian-controlled Kashmir to celebrate.

As the couple paused for a snack in its lush Pahalgam meadow surrounded by snow-capped Himalayan peaks, a man approached them from behind. He didn't look threatening at first, Aishanya told The Associated Press. She thought he might be a local guide.

She said the man looked at the couple with piercing eyes and asked one question: ''Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?'' If they were Muslim, he said, they should recite the Islamic declaration of faith.

The couple froze. Aishanya thought it was perhaps some local performance. ''We are Hindus," her husband said.

Without hesitation, the man pulled out a gun and shot him ''point blank in the head,'' Aishanya, 29, said, and sobbed. Her husband collapsed on her, soaking her in blood.

The man turned the gun on her, then changed his mind. She said the intent was clear: ''He wanted to kill men and leave women behind to mourn, cry and narrate the dastardly ordeal.''

She heard the man, joined by other attackers, tell tourists: ''Tell your government. Tell Modi what we did.'' The tourists ran for their lives.

Authorities with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government have shared few details of last week's attack in Kashmir in which gunmen killed 26 people, most of them local Hindu tourists. It was one of the deadliest assaults in years targeting civilians in the restive region claimed by both India and Pakistan.

The AP spoke with survivors for some of the first witness accounts of the killings that were claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance. India has blamed Pakistan for supporting the massacre. Pakistan denies it. Both warn of imminent military action.

Most of the dead were Indians drawn to Kashmir, its beauty often captured in Bollywood films. In 2019, India revoked the region's semiautonomous status, a decision the government said would help spur development in Kashmir and integrate it more fully. Since then, violence had largely declined.

Survivors said the horror of the attack is unshakable. They also question how authorities allowed it to occur in one of the militarized places on earth, where Indian soldiers are nearly ubiquitous.

''It was a big security lapse," said Sunil Swami, whose son-in-law Vinay Narwal, a naval officer, was killed. He said the government should invite tourists to Kashmir only if ''foolproof security'' is provided: ''Give it in writing and guarantee it.''

Swami recounted what his daughter, who was on honeymoon, told him. Men in camouflage uniforms shot people dead after confirming their religion, Swami said.

''They shot down three bullets into my son-in-law's neck, chest and thighs after realizing he was a Hindu,'' he said.

Rajashree Akul, teacher in Mumbai, said three men from her elder sister Anushka Mone's family were killed. Two gunmen in uniform asked tourists to identify themselves as Hindu or Muslims, she said, recalling her sister's witness account.

''My brother-in-law begged them to ‘Let us go,' saying ‘We are innocent tourists.' They didn't listen to him and shot him dead,'' Akul said.

Loved ones are now struggling with grief and regret.

Tage Mali, who is posted in Kashmir for India's army, rues that he couldn't save his younger brother Tage Hailyang, an Air Force officer, who was shot dead in front of his wife, Charu Kamhua.

Tage Mali said his brother's transfer orders had come, so he invited his wife to see Kashmir's beauty before they left.

The wife told Tage Mali they heard gunshots, and gunmen came to Tage Hailyang and asked for his credentials. As soon as they established his identity, they shot him.