Sohini Adhikary, whose husband Bitan was one of the three from Bengal shot dead in the terror attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday, saw at least three deaths in less than five minutes.

One of them was her husband, who she thought was unconscious after being shot in the shoulder. Sohini said on Thursday that she had not realised then that her husband had been shot twice. The second one was fatal.

Metro reproduces her account:

It all started with the sound of some shots. We initially thought someone was bursting firecrackers or the military was doing shooting practice. But before I could understand, my husband had started to run dragging my son with him.

I turned back and saw two men looking at me. One of them opened fire. A man standing close to me collapsed. It was our turn next. We scrambled towards a spot where several other tourists were trying to hide. They asked us to keep our heads down and our mouths shut. But my son was screaming out of fear.

They singled out my husband and asked who was Hindu and who was Muslim. My husband got nervous. I went and stood between him and the gunman. Before we could understand, he shot at my husband. The bullet hit his shoulder.

I thought who dies from a shoulder wound? For a minute, I was relieved when the men went on to the next family. I thought, as a family, we were safe. When I turned to check on my husband, he was already unconscious.

I gave him CPR . I gave him mouth-to-mouth respiration. I did everything I could do in my capacity to revive him. But his head was drooping by then. I understood he was no more. At the time, I had no clue another bullet had hit him.

But my son and I barely had any time to reflect as the terrorists were talking to the next family just behind me.

One of the terrorists referred to a gentleman as ‘uncle’ and asked, “Uncle aap Hindu hain ki Muslim (uncle, are you Hindu or Muslim)?” They asked who could recite the Kalma? No one responded. The man shot him in the head and neck. He slumped.

His child was standing next to him. The man’s blood was spattered on the child’s face.

The terrorists were just shooting as if they were shooting toy guns. They were shooting on their whim, as if they were playing with toys.

Unfortunately, there were no police or security personnel on the ground at the time.

I thought we were all going to be killed. But then I noticed they were targeting only men.

Two terrorists had come towards the place where we were sitting. There could be more elsewhere. Suddenly, they all left. Then there were screams of pain and panic.