Reciting ‘La ilaha illallah’ saved Assam University professor from terrorists in Pahalgam insidelooknews

Professor Debashish Bhattacharjee, the Assam University professor who survived the Pahalgam terror attack.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Guwahati

Muttering ‘La ilaha illallah Muhammadur rasulullah’ during Tuesday’s (April 22, 2025) terrorist bloodbath in Pahalgam helped an Assam University professor and his family escape to safety.

Debashish Bhattacharjee, who heads the University’s Bengali department in Barak Valley’s Silchar town, had planned to visit Kashmir for many years, with his wife Madhumita Das Bhattacharjee and their son. Their dream trip to “heaven on earth” turned into a hellish nightmare just 24 hours after reaching Srinagar.

The professor was clicking photographs with his mobile phone when he heard a gunshot. Initially, a shawl vendor nearby said the sound was not unusual, as forest guards often scare off monkeys that pester the tourists. Soon, however, the sounds turned sinister.

Lifesaving chant

“We heard more shots and saw bodies falling around us. As we ran and hid behind a tree, a man ran toward us and froze in fear inches from me. Another man, with his face covered, appeared behind him and shot him,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Blood splattered on the professor’s jacket as the body fell on another man trying to hide alongside them. “Some people around me were chanting ‘La ilaha illallah’ as the gunman checked us out. I began muttering the line when the gunman pressed the barrel on my head,” he said.

A fundamental phrase in Islam, the line means: “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

“I could barely make myself audible. The gunman demanded to hear what I was muttering aloud. Trembling, I raised my voice, and he left seconds later,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said. He saw three gunmen and heard 15 shots while the family was trapped at the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam.

Helped by village woman

The Bhattacharjees and a few other tourists trekked uphill from the ‘killing fields’, and managed to escaped to safety two hours later. They continued to hear the gunshots for about 30 minutes as the meadow slowly disappeared from view.

“A woman in a village on the way guided and helped us by contacting some transporters to take us to Srinagar,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.