Latest news with #RishiBhatt
New York Times
01-05-2025
- New York Times
Tourist Selfie Video Captures Kashmir Attack
Rishi Bhatt donned a blue helmet as he prepared to slide down a zip line across the Baisaran Valley in Kashmir, a 'mini Switzerland' where hundreds of tourists from India were enjoying a sunny April afternoon. Holding the rope in one hand and his smartphone in the other, he took off from the platform as the camera began recording. Video filmed by Mr. Bhatt and verified by The New York Times shows panic unfolding as militants can be heard opening fire on tourists, killing at least two dozen people. His smile and shouts of glee are a jarring juxtaposition to the terrorist attack happening below him. As Mr. Bhatt, who was visiting with his family from Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, starts his ride down the zip line, the camera pans across an open meadow. Crowds of people are gathered around what appear to be yellow and blue tents next to a tall structure, which serves as the entrance to the valley. Others are taking a stroll or picnicking on the grass, out in the open to enjoy the spring sunshine. Then a gunshot can be heard in the video. Two more shots ring out in quick succession as Mr. Bhatt passes over children jumping on a trampoline. Below him, people are panicking and there is nowhere to take cover. Some tourists are standing next to Zorb Balls, clear inflatable balls people get inside of and roll. As the gunshots continue, some people look behind their shoulder toward the entrance. An adult swiftly picks up a child. One person crouches and starts to sprint in the same direction as many others: toward a dense forest of cedar trees. The footage does not appear to show the gunmen. It is toward the end of Mr. Bhatt's nearly 40-second ride down the zip line that he starts to look around, realizing something is wrong. 'For about 20 seconds I did not realize; I was deep in my fun in the zip line,' he told one local news channel in an interview. 'Then I realized that firing was going on and people were dying below, and I saw five or six people had been shot.' After he got off the zip line, Mr. Bhatt said he found his family, and they fled, managing to escape the attack unharmed. A lot remains unclear about last week's terror attack that took more than 26 lives and injured 17 people. It has escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, the neighbor that India accuses of supporting terrorism, to the verge of military confrontation. Mr. Bhatt's video has gone viral in India, becoming one piece of evidence as investigators piece together the details of the security lapse and what happened as a picturesque day turned into one of horror.
News18
29-04-2025
- News18
Pahalgam Zipline Operator, Who Said Allahu Akbar, Questioned Twice By NIA; Will Be Quizzed Again: Sources
Last Updated: The NIA is questioning zipline operator Muzammil over his role in the Pahalgam terror attack after a video showed him chanting "Allahu Akbar." Muzammil claims he was scared. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is set to question zipline operator Muzammil once again over his role in the Pahalgam terror attack, after a video surfaced allegedly showing him chanting ' Allahu Akbar" during the incident. Sources say Muzammil has been 'frequently changing his statements" during the ongoing probe. Sources told CNN-News18 that Muzammil, who has been questioned twice by the central probe agency, claimed he chanted ' Allahu Akbar" because he was 'scared". 'He has been questioned twice since yesterday (Monday) and will be questioned again. He hasn't spoken or revealed anything yet," the source said. Additionally, sources revealed that the NIA is not fully convinced by Muzammil's explanation and is investigating further—especially into why he allowed a tourist to proceed on the zipline while gunfire erupted nearby. Muzammil reportedly told the NIA investigators that two rounds were fired just as he launched the zipline. A viral video of the incident, filmed by tourist Rishi Bhatt using a selfie stick, captured the chaos as tourists ran for cover, gunshots rang out, and at least one body was visible on the ground. At the start of the video, Muzammil is heard chanting ' Allahu Akbar" just before Bhatt is sent down the zipline. Allahu Akbar" just seconds before terrorists opened the fire. Sources also revealed that the NIA is examining whether the video was altered or misinterpreted. However, there is no evidence at present to suggest it was doctored. 'Difficult to reach any conclusion on assessment only probe can reveal facts," the source added. According to an earlier report, Muzammil claimed he had no knowledge of terrorists being present in the area. The NIA also stated it was too early to determine whether he had any direct or indirect involvement in the attack. Meanwhile, Muzammil's father, Abdul Aziz, has defended his son, saying he had done nothing wrong. 'We are Muslims. Even if a storm comes, we say ' Allahu Akbar '. It's not a war cry," he told ANI, adding that he had not seen the video himself. The broad daylight attack in Kashmir's Baisaran Valley on 22 April has drawn international condemnation and escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. The assault claimed the lives of 26 men—mostly Hindus—along with a Nepalese national and a local pony operator.
Hans India
29-04-2025
- Hans India
Kashmir Closes Tourist Sites Amid Fresh Terror Threat Warnings
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday shut down 48 of the region's 87 tourist sites after intelligence agencies warned of imminent terror threats following last week's attack in Pahalgam. Intercepted communications indicate sleeper cells activated in the aftermath of the April 22 assault on Baisaran Valley have received instructions to strike security forces and non-local visitors, according to officials familiar with the briefings. Security sources say Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is targeting non-local residents, CID officers and members of the Kashmiri Pandit community in Srinagar and Ganderbal districts. Ongoing reports warn militants across north, central and south Kashmir are planning both targeted killings and a larger retaliatory operation after authorities demolished homes of active terrorists post-Pahalgam. Intelligence assessments also flagged railway infrastructure as a likely target, given the number of non-local railway employees in the valley. Railway security personnel have been ordered to remain within their camps and barracks until further notice. In response, the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police has deployed anti-fidayeen teams to key tourist hubs—including Gulmarg, Sonamarg and the Dal Lake area—which remain open under heightened security. Sites placed off-limits include Dooshpathri, Kokernag, Duksum, Sinthan Top, Acchabal, Bangus Valley, Margan Top, Tosamaidan, Astanpora, Kousarnag, Doodpathri, Ringawali Tangmarg, Habba Khatoon Point and Kawnar, among others. On April 22, attackers based in Pakistan opened fire on holidaymakers in Pahalgam's Baisaran Valley, killing 26 people, most of them tourists. The carnage prompted a wave of departures from Kashmir even as visitors had begun to return, particularly to Pahalgam. Security forces have since launched coordinated raids across the state, detaining hundreds of suspects and sympathizers in their search for the perpetrators, which included at least one local militant. Dozens of active terrorists' homes have been destroyed as part of the intensified anti-terror campaign. The National Investigation Agency, which is leading the probe into the Pahalgam attack, has reconstructed the crime scene on site and plans to question zipline staff and survivors such as Gujarati tourist Rishi Bhatt, whose video captured the assailants.
Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Smiling tourist ziplines over Kashmir terror attack unaware of 26 people being murdered below him
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.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tourist Filming Himself on a Zipline Unknowingly Captures Chilling Footage of Massacre in India That Killed 26
A tourist filming himself while ziplining in Pahalgam's Baisaran meadow reportedly unknowingly recorded parts of the April 22 terror attack, which killed 26 people and injured dozens in Kashmir, India In an interview, Rishi Bhatt said that wasn't aware of what was going on until midway through the zipline and that he fled with his family to safety after finishing the run Authorities described the mass shooting as a terror attack launched by militants who oppose India's control over Kashmir A video reportedly filmed by a tourist while ziplining in India has gone viral after they unknowingly captured the recent deadly mass shooting in Kashmir underneath them. Rishi Bhatt from Ahmedabad filmed himself ziplining over Pahalgam's Baisaran meadow as four men stormed the area and gunned down 26 tourists on April 22, NDTV, ANI News and Hindustan Times reported. In the footage obtained by the outlets, Bhatt is smiling while filming himself as he takes off ziplining across the meadow. However, during the course, several people on the ground underneath him are seen running away as gunshots go off. "Firing started when I was ziplining,' Bhatt told ANI News. 'After about 20 seconds, I realized that it was a terrorist attack and people on the ground are being killed. I saw 5-6 people getting shot,' he recalled. Once he reached the other side, Bhatt quickly escaped the area with his family. "I unlatched my belt and jumped down, took my wife and son and started running away,' he said. 'We saw people hiding at a spot which was like a pit, so you could not spot someone easily there. We too hid there.' Related: Mass Shooting at Kashmir Resort Kills at Least 24 People, Injures Dozens More Authorities described the mass shooting as a "terror attack" launched by militants who oppose India's control over Kashmir. The four men were confirmed by authorities to be militants fighting Indian rule, The New York Times earlier reported. Bhatt recalled that the shooting went on for around 10 minutes before pausing, then starting again. "The firing started again and 4-5 people were shot. 15-16 tourists were shot in front of us," he told ANI News. Bhatt believes the shot victims were targeted as 'two families were asked their religion and shot.' He said the army responded to the scene around 20 minutes later, per ANI News. Related: 3 Dead and 3 Injured in Mass Shooting at Virginia Townhouse Complex Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Following the attack, authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for the shooters. Militants in the Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting against New Delhi's rule since 1989, the Associated Press and ABC7 reported. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, "I strongly condemn the terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest. All possible assistance is being provided to those affected." Read the original article on People
