Family mourns Kashmiri hero who died saving tourists

SLAIN Kashmiri horseman Syed Adil Shah’s grieving family say they are proud of his “sacrifice” after he wrestled with a gunman as he tried to save tourists in last week’s attack.

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Shah, 30, had taken visitors on his pony up to the meadows near Pahalgam, a lush green meadow nestled beneath snow-capped Himalayan peaks on April 22 when gunmen emerged from the treelines.

Holidaymakers were enjoying the tranquil meadows when at least three gunmen, still at large despite a massive search, raked the crowds with automatic gunfire, killing 26 men, including Shah.

“He showed his humanity and that allows us to live on,” his inconsolable father Syed Haidar Shah said from their modest home nestled on wooded slopes.

“He sacrificed his own life while trying to save innocent visitors.”

Shah, a Muslim, was the only Kashmiri killed in the attack. All but one of the dead were Indians, except one tourist from neighbouring Nepal, and most were Hindus.