Pune, Apr 22 (PTI) Three tourists from Maharashtra were among the 26 people who were gunned down by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday, officials said.

Pune residents Santosh Jagdale and Kaustubh Ganbote, who had sustained gunshot wounds in the terror attack have been declared dead, officials said on Tuesday.

The two were part of a five-member group comprising Jagdale, his wife Pragati, daughter Asavari, Ganbote and Sangita Ganbote, who had travelled to Pahalgam on Tuesday.

When contacted, the 24×7 Help Desk-Emergency Control Room for Tourists, set up at the District Headquarters in Srinagar, confirmed the deaths of both Jagdale and Ganbote.

Santosh Jagdale, daughter Asavari told PTI that her father and uncle were shot by terrorists.

“There were several tourists around, but the terrorists specifically targeted male after asking whether they were Hindus or Muslims,” she said while speaking to PTI.

“They then asked my father to recite an Islamic verse (probably the Kalma). When he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one on the head, one behind the ear and another in the back,” she said.

She said the incident occurred on their first day in the region. “After the firing started, we ran along with other tourists. Later, the Indian Army reached the spot and rescued us.” Asawari said that her father had suffered bullet injuries in head and chest.

Mumbai resident Atul Mone (45), a Central Railways employee, was also among those killed in the terror attack, an official said.

The 45-year-old mechanical engineer had joined the Central Railways as a junior engineer in 2000 and was currently working as a senior section engineer at the wheel shop in the Parel Workshop, the official said.

Sources said Mone, a resident of Dombivli, had gone to Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week with his family and friends.

According to union sources, the railway authorities are also trying to contact Mone’s family members, as they might require support, though state authorities are arranging necessary relief.

The attack took place around 3 pm when terrorists came down from the mountain in Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam and started firing at tourists, who frequent the place which is often dubbed as ‘mini Switzerland’ because of its lush green meadows.

The terrorists opened fire at a famed meadow near Kashmir’s Pahalgam town on Tuesday afternoon, killing 26 people, mostly tourists, in what is the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.

The 26 dead included two foreigners and two locals, a high-ranking official said without getting into details. PTI SPK KK NB NB