Pahalgam attack: Pony service provider detained after woman tourist claims he inquired about her religion

The Jammu and Kashmir police detained a pony service provider after a video of a woman tourist claiming that the man asked her about her religion went viral on social media, officials said on Friday. She also claimed to have seen the terrorists while on a mule ride two days before the attack and that a phone conversation she overheard had scared her.

Immediately after the video went viral, police launched a search for the man who was later detained and identified as Aiyaz Ahmad Jungal of Gohipora Raizan Ganderbal district in north Kashmir. On being questioned he said he was a pony service provider at Thajwas Glacier, Sonamarg, reported The Times of India.

The police is now trying to ascertain any links between the Pahalgam terror attack and the pony service provider.

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In the viral video, the woman tourist hailing from Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur claims she had met the suspected terrorists while on a mule ride in Pahalgam on April 20, just two days before the Pahalgam bloodshed.

“There was a ponywalla who didn’t seem to be part of the group of ponywallas when they were ascending towards Baisaran, but he was walking with them," she said talking to a local TV channel, reported The Times of India.

“He asked me from which place you are. I said I am from Rajasthan but now live in UP. He asked me whether I had ever been to Ajmer Dargah. I said no, I’ve never been to Ajmer. Then he asked whether I was Hindu or Muslim. I told him I am Hindu. He asked if I had ever read the Quran, and I said no, I hadn’t,” the woman tourist further claimed.

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She was also asked by the man whether she knew Quran in Hindi and that he would arrange for all the facilities whenever she came for the Amarnath Yatra.

After he finished the conversation, the woman claims that the man took out his phone from his boots and started saying he was sending 35 people in the valley. She also herd him saying that "plan A has failed" and started talking about guns, the media outlet reported.