Surat (Gujarat) [India], April 24 (ANI): Two days after the heartbreaking Pahalgam attack, Shital Kalathiya, wife of Shailesh Kalathiya, one among the 26 victims, remembering the details of the incident said that they had just reached the top of Mini Switzerland and had sat down for a meal when they heard the firing.
“We had just reached Mini Switzerland when the firing had started. It happened twice, and after the second shot, everyone started running. They surrounded us and asked the Hindu men to separate from the Muslim men…We were all silent and were just hoping that they would go away. But everything just happened in a second. They watched all of them die… there was nothing I could do,” the wife said speaking to ANI.
Still in shock, Shital stated how she had only seen this happening in movies and also questioned the absence of security at the spot.
“We had only seen this happening in movies, but when we saw this in real life, it broke us. What shocked us the most is that there was not a single security person present there. if they knew that such risks were present at that place, they shouldn’t have let anyone go up there…” she said.
Naksh, the son of the deceased said that they were a family of four who had gone on the trip.
“We were four of us who went, including my father, my mother and my sister,” he said.
Locals also recalled the horror they witnessed.
Sajad Ahmad Bhat, a shawl hawker from Pahalgam was seen carrying a tourist injured during the attack in a video that went viral on social media.
Recalling the incident, Bhat said that he had received a message from the head of Pahalgam Poney Association, Abdul Waheed Wan, further stating that it was his duty to help the tourists, who were also their guests.
“I was sitting at my home when I received a text from the Pahalgam Poney Association president, Abdul Waheed Wan about the incident in the Baisaran Valley. We went with him and reached the location around 3-3:30 p.m… We gave water to the injured and lifted those who could not walk…. Humanity comes before religion. It is our duty to help the tourists as they are our guests, and our livelihood depends on them. We brought many of them to the hospital… We did not care about our own lives because when we went there, people were pleading for help… When I saw the tourists crying, tears came to my eyes… Their arrival lights up the lamps in our houses. Our life is incomplete without them…” Bhat told ANI.
Terrorists attacked tourists at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam on Tuesday, killing 25 Indian nationals and one from Nepal while leaving several others injured, in one of the deadliest attacks in the valley since the 2019 Pulwama strike in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed. (ANI)