For Debasish Bhattacharya and his family, it was their maiden visit to the Kashmir Valley. And it turned out to be a nightmare last Tuesday when they saw people being shot dead in front of their eyes in the meadows of Pahalgam.

“Our 5-day trip to Kashmir was to conclude on April 26, and we planned to spend a day in Pahalgam. On April 22, we reached the Baisaran meadow, which is called mini-Switzerland, from the rear. Not many people were there. We were all very relaxed. My wife was looking at shawls, and my son was walking around, while I took photos. Suddenly, I heard gunshots. I asked the local photographer. He told me that sometimes, to scare the monkeys away, shots are fired by forest officials,” recounted Bhattacharya, a professor at Assam University

Speaking to The Sunday Express over the phone from his Silchar residence, Bhattacharya said he saw four terrorists gun down men in front of his eyes. “After shooting a man, one of the terrorists quietly walked up to us and asked me, “kya bol rahe ho?” (What are you saying?). Everyone near us was chanting kalma (Islamic verses), and I also started chanting. Though out of fear, nothing was coming out of my mouth. I do not know what the terrorist felt, and he walked away. A little while later, the terrorist returned from the opposite direction, took a round and walked away. When the terrorist was around 20 metres away, we all ran for our lives. Crossed the fence and wandered for two hours in the mountain where there was no cellphone signal and we didn’t know where we were heading,” he said.

“We were still in fear that terrorists could reappear from the forest and shoot them. We followed the hoof marks of the horses and reached a village. We heaved a sigh of relief when they were able to contact our local driver. A local person helped us reach safety. A family from Chhattisgarh was also with us. They got separated, and their child was with us. We quickly returned to Srinagar,” he said.

“Definitely, it’s a new life for us. We faced death right on our faces,” the professor of the Bengali Department said.

Bhattacharya is not sure if he would ever return to Kashmir, but his son Drobadeep wants to visit the Valley again; sometime later.