Guwahati, April 23: In a chilling ordeal, Professor Debashish Bhattacharya of Assam University, Silchar, and his family narrowly escaped death in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Monday.
Bhattacharya, a professor of Bengali, was vacationing with his family in the scenic valley when their trip turned into a nightmare. Originally from Silchar in Assam, the family was caught in the crossfire of a sudden and violent assault by armed assailants.
“Initially, we didn’t understand what had happened. We heard gunshots and immediately took shelter behind trees and bushes. We lay flat on the ground while bullets whizzed past us. A man was shot dead right in front of us—there were blood stains on my shirt,” Bhattacharya recalled.
According to Bhattacharya, the attackers held the family at gunpoint and demanded that they recite the Kalima, the Islamic declaration of faith.
Remarkably, their familiarity with the Kalima—learned while growing up in a Muslim-majority neighbourhood—may have saved their lives. One member of the group also recounted being asked whether they chanted the name of Lord Ram.
Another tourist, who failed to recite the Kalima, was reportedly killed on the spot in front of them. The family described the scene as “horrifying and traumatic.”
“We had started reciting ‘la ilaha illallah’ when the masked man came to us. I was at gunpoint, but after that, he left us,” said Bhattacharya. “We then trekked for two hours through the hills. Once we found a mobile network, we called our driver, who took us to Srinagar. We had planned to stay in Pahalgam but left immediately due to the incident.”
The brutal attack in Pahalgam claimed the lives of 28 tourists, including two foreigners.
A little-known group calling itself “Kashmir Resistance” has claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities have yet to verify the authenticity of the claim.
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