A Pahalgam village mourns its ‘braveheart’, and what comes next: ‘A bullet at our chests, our livelihood’

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah attended Adil Hussain’s funeral, at his remote Hapat Nar village, some 35 km from Baisaran. In a post shared on X by his office, Abdullah wrote: “I visited Pahalgam today to offer ‘fatiha’ (prayer after burial)’ for braveheart Shah, who was shot dead while trying to snatch a weapon from one of the terrorists in a courageous attempt to protect the tourists he had ferried on horseback… Adil (Shah) was the sole breadwinner, and his extraordinary bravery and sacrifice will forever be remembered.”

At his modest single-storey house in Hapat Nar, that’s the consolation his family, including his wife, parents, and five younger siblings, is holding on to. Among villagers huddled around, the talk is about the 29-year-old’s “courage and valour”.

Younger brother Syed Naushad Shah, who gets intermittent work as a tourist driver, said they don’t know exactly what happened at Baisaran, except what they heard of how Adil died. “At a Srinagar hospital, a woman tourist told me he was killed when he confronted the militants. She told me Adil dropped to the ground to save himself when the militants opened fire on her father from point blank range. But as she too fell down, Adil confronted the militants, asking them why they were killing innocents. She said the militants then fired at him too.”

Adil was shot thrice, with two bullets piercing his neck and a third his shoulder.

Adil’s father Syed Haider Shah said the 29-year-old left home as usual at 8 am Tuesday for work. “He would go to Baisaran and ferry tourists on a pony. He didn’t have his own pony, and the owner gave him Rs 400-Rs 500 a day for ferrying tourists. Last week, because of the rains, he hadn’t been to work for three days.”

Naushad said they got to know what had happened only in the evening, several hours after the militants struck around 2 pm. “I was in Chandanwari with some customers when I heard about the attack… I called up Adil but his phone was not reachable. I rushed home straight away and called him again. This time his phone rang, but there was no response.”

Naushad then went to the police station and finally Pahalgam in search of Adil, and was told that among the dead was a local ponywallah. His heart sank, said Naushad. “I asked them for details. They said his name was Abid Hussain. It resembled my brother’s name. I asked them to cross-check, and they confirmed it was Adil.”

Adil’s body was shifted to Srinagar, and Naushad was asked to go there. It was at Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital that he met the tourists who had been attacked, one of whom told him how Adil had died.

The body reached home on Wednesday afternoon, with hundreds attending Adil’s funeral. Abdullah assured Adil’s family that his government would take care of them. Expressing his sorrow at what had happened, the CM added: “The tourists came to have a good time here and were sent back in coffins. A poor labourer left home to earn, but died.”

As they mourned the 29-year-old, villagers also talked in hushed voices about how the terror attack would have a cascading effect. Over a thousand households in Hapat Nar and surrounding villages alone depend on earnings from the tourists who come to Pahalgam, working as ponywallahs, taxi drivers or labourers, or at restaurants.

On Wednesday, many of them were on the streets – besides hoteliers, traders and residents – protesting against the attack. Schools stayed shut and shops downed shutters. Several people held night vigils while a two-minute silence was observed by government employees.

“It was not a bullet fired at tourists,” said Ashraf, who runs a tourist cab. “It was a bullet fired at our chests, a bullet fired at our livelihood.”

Almost every young man from our village works in Pahalgam, Ashraf added. “We earn Rs 500 a day, it gets spent by the evening, and the next morning, we leave for Pahalgam again. This is how these villages live and survive.”