Massacre of a Tourist

Events & Festivals

Posted by AI on 2025-08-08 13:07:06 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-12-15 08:55:44

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On a serene Kashmir valley trek, tech professional Bhaskar Kharpade expected to glimpse snow geese and Himalayan black bears. Instead, he witnessed a gruesome spectacle on April 9, 2023: a tourist shot dead in Kashmir's Gulmarg the picturesque town known for its lush hills and sparkling waters.

But this was no one-off. As Bhaskar hurried to the police to report the murder he had just witnessed, he learned that it was 42nd shooting incident in Kashmir this year alone.

Discussing his experience back home in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Bhaskar was aghast at the official tally: "More people have been killed in gunshots in Kashmir this year than wild animals," he wrote on Twitter, underscoring the calamitous end to his trip.

There is more than what meets the eye in the data collected on shooting incidents in Kashmir. The number of shooting incidents in Kashmir has surged to 46 by April 11, 2023, according to The Indian Express newspaper. Sometime in 2022, gunfights became more frequent, and by July, the annual violent death toll in the region was eclipsing the yearly average of the last decade.

The spike in violent deaths signals a deeper malaise in the region and poses questions about the tourism boom and normalcy touted by the government.

Quoting Bhaskar, The Indian Express said, "They are killing people left and right. There is no rhyme or reason. Anyone could be a victim. Anyone."

Conclusion:

Shot 42 times the gruesome statistic from Bhaskar's tweet underscores the perilous security situation in Kashmir. It's one that sees tourists becoming witnesses to crime and analysts questioning the notion of 'normalcy.'

With the recent spike in shootings, concerns over human rights abuses, and the growing number of civilian deaths, the government's promise of a safe Kashmir rings hollow for many.

The ramifications of the simmering violence continue to disrupt lives, instill fear, and threaten Kashmir's precarious stability.

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