Smiling tourist ziplines over Kashmir terror attack unaware of 26 people being murdered below him

Daily Mail​

29-04-2025

Shocking video footage captured the moment a tourist zip-lined over a terror attack in India, completely oblivious to the carnage unfolding below that has raised fears of a war between two nuclear-armed powers.
Rishi Bhatt can be seen soaring over the scene of a mass shooting which killed 26 people in the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam, a resort town in the Indian administered part of Kashmir, on April 22.
The holidaymaker was beaming in the footage as he flew above the idyllic hills of Jammu and Kashmir where children were joyfully bouncing on trampolines alongside groups of vacationers.
But gunshots suddenly rang out mere feet below him, and the footage turns from a fun holiday live-stream to a video chronicling a horrific moment in India's history.
Bhatt later told local news stations that the shooters took aim at tourists close to the launch point, meaning the zipline likely prevented him from being caught in the killing spree which reignited fighting in Kashmir - a territory that has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the British partition of India in 1947.
The shooting, which Indian authorities believe was carried out by Pakistani assailants, prompted a flurry of military and diplomatic action as both sides engaged in exchanges of fire along the 'Line of Contact' (LoC) that separates Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
India launched naval drills, test-fired several long-range missile systems and suspended a key treaty that ensures India supplies Pakistan with water from the Indus River, a provision that is crucial for Pakistan's water supply and agricultural economy.
Pakistan, which has denied any involvement in the attack, deployed its air force to close its airspace to Indian airlines and has mobilized its army.
Footage circulating on social media appeared to show artillery batteries and armored vehicles on their way to the LoC in anticipation of a major conflict.
India has identified two of the three April 22 attackers as 'terrorists' from Pakistan waging a violent revolt in the Indian-administered but Muslim-majority part of Kashmir.
The majority of the dead were Hindu tourists from India, with reports from witnesses and survivors claiming the gunmen, who remain at large, were ordering civilians to recite Islamic prayers and shooting those who were unable to do so.
A Pakistani militant group known as The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility in the wake of the attack, only to rescind the statement days later and blame the initial claim on a communications breach.
Hindu-majority India accuses Islamic Pakistan of funding and encouraging militancy in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both nations claim in full but rule in part.
Islamabad says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to a Kashmiri demand for self-determination and has refuted all suggestions that the government or military were involved in planning or supporting the attack.
But tensions have spiraled in the past week, prompting fears the situation could escalate into war between two nuclear-armed powers.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters in an interview at his office in Islamabad: 'We have reinforced our forces because (an incursion) is something which is imminent now. In that situation some strategic decisions have to be taken, so those decisions have been taken.'
He added that India's rhetoric was ramping up and that Pakistan's military had briefed the government on the possibility of an Indian attack, though he gave no details as to why he thought an incursion by India's forces was in the offing.
Asif's statement came after Pakistan's railway minister, Hanif Abbasi, dramatically declared at the weekend that his nation's nuclear arsenal of more than 130 missiles were 'not kept as models' and were reserved 'only for India'.
'These ballistic missiles, all of them are targeted at you,' he concluded in a chilling warning.
Analysts warn of the risk that bellicose statements from both sides could escalate into military action between two nations that boast an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
An all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations could prove devastating for the 15-million-strong population of the disputed territory.
More than half of the tourist destinations in India's Kashmir region were closed to the public from Tuesday, according to a government order reviewed by Reuters, in a bid to tighten security after last week's attack on holiday-makers.
India's defense forces have conducted several military exercises across the country since the attack, though many of them were reported to be military preparedness drills.
Security forces have detained around 500 people for questioning after searching nearly 1,000 houses and forests around the site of the attacks in their hunt for the militants and further evidence, a local police official said this morning.
Several houses belonging to Muslim families living in Indian Kashmir were demolished in the course of the operation, prompting regional political leaders to ensure the innocent are not harmed in the government's actions against terrorism.
'It's time to... avoid any misplaced action that alienates people. Punish the guilty, show them no mercy but don't let innocent people become collateral damage,' Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said on X on Saturday.
Another former chief minister made an appeal to the Indian government 'to take care that innocent people are not made to feel the brunt as alienation aids terrorists' goals of division and fear.'
But the Indian government is pressing ahead with a raft of measures in response to the shooting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia to return to New Delhi after the shooting, issued a stern warning that authorities would 'identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers' and vowed to hunt the shooters 'to the ends of the Earth'.
'We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,' India's home minister, Amit Shah, wrote on social media.
Last week, India's Ministry of External Affairs declared it was suspending visa services for Pakistanis and also suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 that ensures water for 80% of Pakistani farms, saying it would last until 'Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.'
The treaty split the Indus River and its tributaries between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Government officials and experts on both sides say India cannot stop water flows immediately, but this could change in a matter of months.
The international community meanwhile issued calls for cool heads while condemning the violence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and stressed that 'attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances,' UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir's top religious cleric, said on social media that 'such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir, which welcomes visitors with love and warmth.'
US Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting India at the time of the shooting, called it a 'devastating terrorist attack.'
He added on social media: 'Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack.'
US President Donald Trump noted on social media the 'deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against terrorism.'
Other global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, condemned the attack.
'The United States stands with India,' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.
The two nations have clashed over Kashmir since 1947, when Britain, which controlled India, split the nation into two, creating an independent India and Pakistan.
The partition of the two nations established Pakistan as a Muslim-majority nation, while India was created as a Hindu-majority nation.
Britain's decision, passed by parliament in July 1947, also gave Kashmir, as well as Jammu, the opportunity to decide which nation to join.
Kashmir's monarch, the maharaja, initially decided that his nation should go it alone, claiming that it had been under the yoke of empires for centuries and had been ignored and under-developed.
But ultimately, the then-ruler of Kashmir agreed his nation should join India, in exchange for the former colony providing material support against Pakistan, which later triggered the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48.
Years of conflict led to rebels in Kashmir waging an insurgency that began in 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Kashmir has seen a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region's semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
But the region has drawn millions of visitors who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armoured vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and claimed it as a sign of normalcy returning.
The meadow in Pahalgam where last week's attack occurred is a popular destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, while condemning the attack, said Modi's government should take accountability instead of making 'hollow claims on the situation being normal' in the region.