Pahalgam terror attack: Trousers of 20 victims were found unzipped or pulled down by terrorists to confirm they were Hindus before killing them

Disturbing details have emerged in the preliminary investigation in the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Hindu tourists were shot dead in a cold-blooded manner by Jihadi terrorists. A joint investigation team of Army officers, J&K Police, and members of the J&K administration that conducted the first examination of the bodies of the victims reportedly found that the trousers of around 20 victims were unzipped or pulled down. The revelation confirms that the terrorists first confirmed the religion of the victims by checking if they are circumcised or not before killing them.

The finding also corroborates the eyewitnesses’ testimonies, where they said that terrorists asked the victims their names and religion. The terrorists asked them to recite the Kalma (a declaration of faith central to Islam) to make sure that only Hindus were targeted. Terrorists also checked the IDs of the victims and pulled down their trousers to check if they were circumcised. Islam mandates circumcision as a covenant with God or a sign of purification. After the attack, the bodies of the victims were taken to the Anantnag District Hospital, where the staff received them as they were after being shot.

As per reports, the joint investigation team is interrogating around 70 overground workers and terror sympathisers suspected of colluding with the terrorists. “Initially, the probe team rounded up 1500 overground workers to examine their possible role. These have been narrowed down to 70 overground workers strongly suspected to have helped the Pahalgam attack team with logistics. We hope to narrow the search further and get to the real culprits soon,” a J&K administration official was quoted as saying.

Eyewitnesses recalled the horror

Debasish Bhattacharyya, an Associate Professor at Assam University, who was among the fortunate few who survived the terrorist attack, revealed that he was spared by the terrorists because he was able to recite the Kalima. Asavari Jagdale, the daughter of a 54-year-old businessman from Pune, who was also murdered by the assailants, described how they confronted her father, Santosh Jagdale and demanded that he recite an Islamic verse. They shot him in the head, behind the ear and then in the back after he was unable to comply. 41-year-old Bharat Bhushan, a tech professional from Bengaluru, was also brutally gunned down in front of his wife and three-year-old son by the terrorists after confirming his Hindu identity.

Two foreigners and two locals were among the 26 people killed in the attack. The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist organisation claimed responsibility for the terror attack.

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