The family was cowering in fear inside a tent when terrorists came. They asked Santosh Jagdale, 54, to come out and recite an Islamic verse. When he couldn’t, they shot him thrice: once in the head, then behind the ear and then his back.
The 26-year-old daughter of the Pune businessman recounted to PTI the terror the family went through in the horrific attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
After her father fell to the ground, the gunmen turned on her uncle who was lying next to her and shot him several times in the back.
“We were a group of five people, including my parents. We were in Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam and were at a spot called Mini Switzerland when the firing began,” Asavari Jagdale told PTI in a telephonic interview five hours after the shooting.
Manjunath Rao (47), hailing from Vijayanagar in Shivamogga district, had gone to Pahalgam with his wife Pallavi and son Abhijaya.
“My husband was shot dead by terrorists in front of our eyes,” Pallavai told local news channels in Karnataka over the phone.
She further said that she asked the terrorists to kill her as well, to which they replied that she should be alive to convey the message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The wife of a Shivamogga man killed in the Pahalgam terror attack has revealed a chilling threat issued by terrorists to the families of the victims. “Tumhe nahi marenge, jaake Modi ko bolo,” the terrorists told the grieving relatives of the victims.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condoled Manjunath Rao’s demise and assured all support to his family.
According to senior officials, several tourists were killed and at least 20 were injured when terrorists opened fire in a picturesque meadow near Kashmir’s Pahalgam town.
“I strongly condemn the heinous terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, J&K. Kannadigas are among the victims of this shocking incident. Upon receiving the news, I convened an emergency meeting and reviewed the situation with the Chief Secretary and senior police officials. I have also spoken to the Resident Commissioner in Delhi,” Siddaramaiah said on ‘X’.
The authorities later released the list of those who died in the terror attack and many were Hindus who were identified by ID cards by terrorists and shot . The deceased ones included Sushil Nathyal, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, Hemant Suhas Joshi, Vinay Narwal, Atul Shrikant Moni, Neeraj Udhawani, Bitan Adhikari, Sudeep Neupane, Shubham Dwivedi, Prashant Kumar Satpathi, Manish Ranjan (Excise Inspector), N. Ramachandra, Sanjay Lakshman Lali, Dinesh Agarwal, Sameer Guhar, Dileep Dasali, J. Sachandra Moli, Madhusudan Somisetty, Santosh Jaghda, Manju Nath Rao, Kastuba Ganvotay, Bharat Bhushan, Sumit Parmar, Yatesh Parmar, Tagehalying (employee of Airforce), Shaileshbhai H. Himmatbhai Kalathia.
