First flight out: At IGI airport, tourists recount J&K ordeal

Hindustan Times

24-04-2025

New Delhi
As an Air India Express flight from Srinagar landed around 3:30 pm at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Wednesday, over 190 anxious tourists walked out — many still shaken by the previous day's terror attack in Pahalgam. The crowd, which included newlyweds from Jaipur, a Gurugram-based IT professional and his family, a priest from Hyderabad, and two friends from Mumbai, was immediately swarmed by media personnel.
Among the first to exit Terminal 3 were Komal and Mihir Soni, a couple from Jaipur who had come to Kashmir for their honeymoon. On Tuesday, while visiting Baisaran Valley — a lush, alpine meadow above Pahalgam — they witnessed the firing firsthand.
'I was eating Maggi when I saw a man, then heard a gunshot. The shopkeeper told me it was nothing, but then more shots rang out. A man ran toward the shop and fired at another man. He was killed just 50 metres from us,' said Komal, 25, choking up. 'We all ducked down, praying for our lives. When people started running, we followed.'
Her husband, Mihir, 26, added, 'I was at the same bhelpuri stall where Lieutenant Vinay Narwal was shot. I had just walked away. I saw him… It could have been me.'
Narwal, a 26-year-old Navy officer from Karnal, was among the 26 people killed by terrorists on Tuesday afternoon. The Sonis had reached Baisaran with a crowd of tourists just before the gunmen opened fire around 2.30pm.
'It went on for 10-20 minutes. We heard screams, saw a man in a pool of blood. Narwal's wife was nearby, in shock,' Komal said. 'We fled with a group of five or six, running for the entry gate.' Mihir recounted how they tried to return to the base camp, only to find their horse guide had vanished. 'We begged another rider to take us down, paid ₹4,000. Gunshots were still ringing out. No military or police were present in the valley — that was the scariest part,' he said.
They reached the base by 2.50pm and were the ones who informed security forces. 'They had no idea what had happened,' Mihir said, still visibly stunned. The couple rushed back to their hotel in Pahalgam, fielding frantic calls from relatives. They cancelled the rest of their trip, booked the first flight out, and arrived in Delhi by late afternoon.
Among the other returning tourists was Gurugram-based IT professional Abhishek Kakran, 33, who had travelled with his family of five. They said they were en route from Aru to Baisaran when the attack occurred.
'We were just a kilometre away when we were turned back. We didn't understand what was going on until we reached Pahalgam and I got network again. My phone had dozens of missed calls. On social media, I saw the news — people had died,' he said.
Kakran said the chaos was overwhelming. 'Traffic was jammed, markets were shut, food was unavailable. Our taxi driver was panicking and calling his friends. We reached Srinagar, spent the night there, and went straight to the airport the next morning. It was packed — people were crying, calling home. There were injured people too.'
Ayyub Peerzadi and Mohammed Ismail, two friends from Mumbai's Thane district, had trekked to Baisaran the day before the attack. 'We were in Pahalgam town when the news broke. We had just visited the same place where 20-plus people were killed,' Peerzadi said. 'Our families were frantic. At Srinagar Airport, there were huge crowds. Some people waited 10 to 16 hours. No one wanted to stay back. Everyone just wanted to leave.'
Shridhar Krishna Das, a priest from Hyderabad, had brought his wife and two daughters on a four-day vacation. 'We were supposed to visit Pahalgam but thankfully didn't go. When we heard about the attack, we immediately changed our plans. People around us kept talking about the dead and injured. Everything was shut — shops, streets. We just wanted to get out,' he said. 'Only when we landed in Delhi did I feel a sense of relief.'