In the present work, nanoparticles of copper and silver synthesized via pulsed laser ablation of the respective targets in distilled water are applied to cellulose filter paper to check their effectiveness in the annihilation of bacteria from contaminated water. The treatment of the filter paper with the nanoparticles is found to be an excellent way to get rid of two common bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, from contaminated water. The spread plate method on agar, employed to test the antibacterial efficacy of the nanoparticle-treated papers, clearly shows the absence of bacterial growth upon coming into contact with the nanoparticles in the filter paper. These results were further substantiated by the growth kinetic study of the bacteria that exhibited slow growth of the bacteria that were exposed to the nanoparticles. The morphology of the bacteria that came into contact with the nanoparticles is found to be adversely affected by the nanoparticles. Both copper and silver nanoparticles show a similar extent of antibacterial activity.