The only local man terrorists shot dead in Pahalgam was pony-ride operator who tried to fight back

As gunfire erupted in the tourist hub of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday (April 22), a pony ride operator named Syed Adil Hussain Shah displayed a moment of extraordinary courage.

Shah’s name is plastered all over social media now: He was the only local killed in the horrific terror attack carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot The Resistance Force (TRF).

While most scrambled for safety amid the chaos, Shah lunged towards one of the gunmen, attempting to wrest the rifle from his hands.

The 34-year-old, who ferried visitors on horseback to the Baisaran meadow, a lush clearing accessible only by foot, was fatally shot in the process. His act of resistance became a symbol of bravery in the face of a massacre that left up to 28 people dead, most of them tourists.

According to survivors, the attackers appeared to select their victims after asking them to identify their religion, demanding that they recite the Kalma and even stripping some to check for circumcision— a chilling echo of past communal assaults in the region.

Shah, a father of two and the sole provider for his family has left behind grieving parents, a widow, and children who now face an uncertain future. “My son went to Pahalgam yesterday to work, and around 3 pm, we heard about the attack. We called him, but his phone was switched off,” his father, Syed Haider Shah, told the ANI news agency. “Later, at 4.40 pm, his phone turned on, but no one answered. We rushed to the police station, and that’s when we learned that he had been injured in the attack. Whoever is responsible must face the consequences.”

The brutal attack, claimed by the Pakistan-backed terror group The Resistance Front— an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba — has renewed fears about escalating violence in the Valley. However, it also cast a spotlight on individuals like Shah, whose final act was not of fear, but of defiance.

With inputs from ANI