GUWAHATI: Authorities have released the names of the 26 individuals killed in the terror attack that struck Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on Tuesday, April 22. Postmortem examinations were conducted overnight at the Government Medical College Hospital in Srinagar. Officials confirmed that the bodies would be transported to the victims' native places across the country and beyond.
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The deceased include residents from multiple Indian states—Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh—as well as a tourist from Nepal and a local from Pahalgam. Among the dead were serving defence personnel, civil servants, business professionals and holidaymakers.
Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, a 26-year-old Navy officer posted at the Southern Naval Command in Kochi, was on his honeymoon in the region when he was killed. Tage Hailyang, a young airman from Arunachal Pradesh serving in the Indian Air Force, also lost his life in the attack.
Other victims include Shaileshbhai H. Himmatbhai Kalathia, a Surat resident, who died a day before his 44th birthday; Prashant Kumar Satpathy, a 41-year-old accountant from Odisha, who was shot in the head while vacationing with his wife and young son; and IB officer Manish Ranjan, originally from Bihar and posted in Hyderabad, who was gunned down in front of his wife and children during their holiday.
A businessman from Pune was reportedly asked to recite an Islamic verse by the assailants. When he failed, he was shot three times. His daughter, who survived, later stated she was unsure whether the gunmen had been neutralised.
Bharat Bhushan, aged 41, from Bengaluru, was also among the victims. His wife Sujatha and their three-year-old son survived the attack. Another Karnataka resident, Manjunath Rao, 47, from Shivamogga, was confirmed among the dead.
The full list of deceased includes: Sushil Nathyal, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, Hemant Suhas Joshi, Vinay Narwal, Atul Shrikant Moni, Neeraj Udhawani, Bitan Adhikari, Sudeep Neupane, Shubham Dwivedi, Prashant Kumar Satpathi, Manish Ranjan, N. Ramachandra, Sanjay Lakshman Lali, Dinesh Agarwal, Sameer Guhar, Dileep Dasali, J. Sachandra Moli, Madhusudan Somisetty, Santosh Jaghda, Manju Nath Rao, Kastuba Ganvotay, Bharat Bhushan, Sumit Parmar, Yatesh Parmar, Tage Hailyang and Shaileshbhai H. Himmatbhai Kalathia.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a high-level meeting in New Delhi following the incident. Attendees included External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, and other senior officials. Discussions centred on the security lapse and the investigation underway to identify the perpetrators and their possible support networks.