Baisaran is often described as a postcard come to life. Horses climb through pine-fringed meadows, and families sip kahwa on grassy slopes. On most days, it is where people come to seek calm. But that silence was ruptured on Tuesday as gunshots echoed through the valley.

Several tourists were injured. This attack marks yet another instance where people who come chasing peace, have been caught in the crosshairs of violence.

Over the past eight years, there have been at least five major attacks where tourists or pilgrims were the intended targets. Each left numbers in its wake, while stories of holidays turned into horror.

In July 2017, a bus ferrying Amarnath pilgrims was ambushed near Anantnag. Eight were killed and 18 injured. That night, one man’s courage stood out. Saleem Mirza, the bus driver, kept driving through a hail of bullets, saving dozens more from dying.

“It wasn’t bravery,” he told reporters later. “It was fear, and God’s will.”

For a time after that, there was quiet. Tourist arrivals dipped and then rebounded. Tulips bloomed again in Srinagar’s gardens. Houseboats were back in demand. Social media feeds filled up with powdery slopes of Gulmarg and mirror lakes of Pahalgam.

In April 2024, the calm was broken again. A local cab driver ferrying tourists in Shopian district was shot by suspected militants. The driver, a young man in his twenties, had taken pride in showing the beauty of his homeland to travellers. He succumbed to his injuries, and the tourists were left shaken, their visit cut short.

A month later, in May 2024, two tourists from Jaipur were injured in a targeted firing incident inside a private resort in Pahalgam. The victims had checked into the resort for a weekend getaway. It was meant to be a birthday celebration. As per police accounts, gunmen entered the premises late at night and opened fire before vanishing into the dark. The couple survived, but one of them required surgery.

Then came June 2024, when violence escalated to chilling proportions. A bus carrying pilgrims from the Shiv Khori cave shrine in Reasi district was ambushed and fired upon. The bus lost control and fell into a deep gorge. Nine people died, including women and children. Forty-one others were injured.

And now, Baisaran.

Terror in Kashmir often targets security forces or political figures. But when tourists are hit, it is a statement of a different kind. It seeks to rupture the image of Kashmir as safe, scenic, and worth visiting.

Security forces are expected to increase deployments in the valley. There will be advisories, curbs, and perhaps fresh scrutiny of movement in and around Pahalgam. But Kashmir’s real challenge remains harder to fix.