Rishi Bhat wore a blue helmet as he prepared to slide along the zip line across the Baisaran Valley in Kashmir, a “mini-switzerland” where hundreds of tourists from India enjoyed a sunny April afternoon. He took off from the platform as he held the rope with one hand and on the other smartphone.
The video, filmed by Mr. Butt and verified by the New York Times, shows that the panic unfolds as extremists can hear fire at tourists and kill at least 20 people. His smile and cry of joy are an unpleasant juxtaposition to the terrorist attacks taking place beneath him.
Mr. Bhat, who was visiting with his family from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, western India, rides down the zip line and pans across the open meadows with cameras open. Many people gather around what appears to be yellow and blue tents next to the tall structure that serves as the entrance to the valley. Others take walks and picnics on the grass to enjoy the spring sun.
You can then hear the gunshots on the video. Two more shots quickly sing in succession as Mr. Batt walks past the kids hoping on the trampoline.
Under him, people are in panic and there is no place to hide. Some tourists stand next to Zorbborg. As gunshots continue, some people look behind their shoulders towards the entrance. Adults will pick up the child immediately. One person leaps down and begins to sprint in the same direction as many others. Heading towards a dense forest of cedar trees.
The footage does not appear to show the gunman. Towards the end of Mr. Batt's ZIP line, he begins to look around and realizes something is wrong.
“For about 20 seconds, I didn't notice. I was deeply and deeply into the fun I had at the zipline,” he said in an interview with India Today, a mainstream Indian news channel. “Then I noticed that there was a shooting happening and people were dying below, and five or six people were shot or killed.” After he got off the zip line, Mr. Butt said he had found his family and they managed to escape and somehow managed to escape the attack unharmed.
Much remains unknown about the terrorist attacks that claimed more than 26 lives and injured 17 people last week. It intensified tensions between India and Pakistan. This is a neighbor who accused India of supporting terrorism, and is on the verge of a military conflict.
Bhatt's video went viral in India, becoming one piece of evidence as investigators piece together details of security lapse with what happened as a picture-per-day, turning it into one of the horrors.
