The twin attacks on tourist buses has come as a big blow to Jammu and Kashmir's tourism industry especially at a time when the upbeat authorities say that around four lakh tourists visited the valley in May.
In fact, tourist activity has almost come to a standstill, with hoteliers and travel agents battling hard to deal with cancellation calls.
The state government had been announcing attractive packages and a series of confidence building measures to woo back tourists to Kashmir.
A senior state tourism department official told rediff.com that many tourists were leaving the valley.
Meanwhile, a critically-wounded Bengali tourist succumbed to injuries in a Srinagar hospital on Friday.
Suraj Dutta was wounded in militant twin bombings on tourist buses in Srinagar on Wednesday in which 24 tourists were wounded, five of them seriously.
"Suraj was admitted with multiple splinter injuries. We tried our best to save his life but failed," said a doctor at the SMHS hospital.
Twenty injured tourists have been discharged from hospitals after doctors found them fit to undertake the journey home.
Four of the wounded tourists are still stated to be critical and they are being flown to Kolkata in a special plane organised by the state government.
Dutta's body will also be flown to his home in West Bengal.
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