A year after Baisaran attack, victims’ families yet to heal, and so is Pahalgam

A year on, the silence at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam feels heavier than the gunfire that shattered it.

The terror attack on April 22, 2025, left 26 people dead, including tourists and a local pony operator, after militants walked into the open grassland and started indiscriminate firing. Those who survived remember the detail that still unsettles: victims were asked their religion before they were killed.

For families, the date has brought no sense of closure.

Families mark a year without closure

“This one year was very difficult for me and my family… We have been through hell in the last one year,” said Asavari Jagdale, whose father Santosh Jagdale was among those killed. “My father was a firm support to me and my mother…,” she added.

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Across India, 25 other families carry similar stories. Many witnessed the killings firsthand.

Lives upended far from Kashmir

In Odisha, the wife of Prasanta Kumar Satapathy is still adjusting to a life that changed overnight. “It's been almost a year… not a single day has passed that I haven't remembered him,” she said, as quoted in media reports.

What was once a temporary job has become her only means of survival. She is still waiting for a government job promised after the attack, reported ANI.

Grief and memory in Kashmir

In Kashmir, the grief is harder to separate from daily life.

Adil Hussain Shah, a pony operator, died trying to disarm one of the attackers. His widow, Gulnaz Akhtar, now lives with her parents. “Life has been hard,” she said, adding, “A job will not bring him back, and life feels impossible without a partner.”

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Her husband’s death is spoken of with pride in the family. “I take immense pride that Adil died saving tourists... I miss him deeply,” she said.

Tourism hit hard

Locals still feel the impact of the attack on their livelihoods. Pahalgam had long been seen as a quieter pocket of Kashmir’s tourism map. That confidence has not fully returned.

Baisaran reportedly remains shut. Security has tightened across the region, while tourist footfall fell sharply in the months after the attack and has only partially recovered.

A slow, uneasy return

For those who depend on tourism, the fallout has been immediate. Pony operators, hoteliers, and drivers saw income disappear within weeks. Some sold their vehicles while others waited, hoping the season would turn.

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“It was a year we wish we could erase from our memory,” said Bashir Ahmad, who represents local pony operators, as quoted by The Telegraph.

Even now, visitors arrive with hesitation. The first question, locals say, is almost always the same. They ask whether Baisaran has reopened.

On the ground, the memory is not carried in statements or operations. It lingers in empty hotel rooms, rerouted roads, and in families who still speak of that day in the present tense.

(With agency inputs)