A local man believed to have been hiding atop a tree for more than an hour after the first gunshots rang out at Pahalgam is being questioned by police for crucial leads on the terrorists, The Indian Express has learnt. “He has also been taken back to Baisaran valley by the National Investigation Agency to recreate the scene,” a source close to the investigation said.
Police are also collecting evidence from his mobile phone, given that he viewed the entire episode from a distance.
Sources also told that on the day of the attack, at least 400 people were present inside the vast Baisaran meadow. While the number of tickets sold at the park’s ticket counter that day is still being ascertained, an early estimate has placed the figure during the attack at 400, with ticket sales close to 1,000.
“If not for the intervention of locals, the toll could have been higher,” said a source. Eyewitnesses have told investigating agencies that at least three people entered the area by crossing over a chain link fence surrounding the park and began walking towards the centre, “shooting precisely”.
This, according to the source, left the park’s gate open, and the local ponywallas who remained outside helped tourists to safety. It is learnt that the militants then ran towards the forest bordering the meadow and crossed over the fence again.
Eyewitnesses, including Nazakat Ahmad Shah, who helped rescue some of the tourists at Baisaran on April 22, told The Indian Express that they have not seen security presence at the meadow in recent times. “I have been going to the park for years and not seen anyone in uniform there,” he said. This was echoed by other locals in Pahalgam, who said that while the more popular tourist spots of Pahalgam — Betab Valley, Aru and Chandanwari – do have a visible security presence, that was not the case with Baisaran.
Off track and at least six kilometres from the Pahalgam market, Baisaran is accessible by foot or on ponies. It is also en route to an 11-kilometre trek to Lake Tulian, a remote alpine lake in the upper reaches of Pahalgam, popular with foreign tourists.
