Rishi Bhatt, wearing a blue helmet, prepares to glide in the Baisaran valley in Kashmir, a “mini Switzerland” where hundreds of tourists from India enjoy a sunny April afternoon. Holding the rope on one hand, holding his smartphone in the other hand, he took off from the platform as the camera started recording.
The video shot by Mr. Bart and verified by the New York Times shows panic as activists can be heard firing on tourists, killing at least two dozen people. His smile and cheer were shocking with the terrorist attacks that took place below him.
Just as Mr. Bhatt, who visited with his family in Gujarat, western India, began riding along the zipper line, the camera rode towards the open grass. A large group of people gathered next to a tall structure, which was the entrance to the valley. Others stroll or picnic on the open grass and enjoy the spring sunshine.
Then gunfire can be heard in the video. Two more shots rang out quickly as Mr. Bhatt jumped over the child and jumped onto the trampoline.
Below him, people were panicked and had nowhere to hide. Some tourists stood next to Zorb balls, people entered and rolled clearly inflatable balloons. As the gunshot continued, some looked at the shoulders of the entrance. Adults pick up their children quickly. One person squatted down and began to sprint in the same direction as many others: towards the dense forest of cedar trees.
The camera doesn’t seem to show the Gunner. At the end of Mr. Bart’s nearly 40-second ride along the zipper line, he began to look around and realize something was wrong.
“I didn’t realize it for about 20 seconds; the deeper I was on the zipper line,” he told an Indian news channel in an interview. “Then I realized that the shooting was going on, people were dying below, and I saw five or six people being shot.” Mr. Bhatt said after leaving the zipper line that he found his family, who escaped, and managed to escape the attack.
Many are not yet known about the terrorist attacks last week, which killed more than 26 people and injured 17 people. It escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, which India accused its support for terrorism, on the brink of military confrontation.
Mr. Bart’s video is all the rage in India, and it’s evidence when investigators gather details of security mistakes and a picture-like day turns into one of the horrors.
