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Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Indian Express
‘Save the children': Guide who helped tourists escape recalls those terrifying 10 minutes at Pahalgam meadow
'Whatever happens, save the children.' Over the sound of gunshots ringing across Baisaran, Chhattisgarh resident Lucky Parashar, his face on the ground, cried out to tour guide Nazakat Ahmad Shah for help. The firing in the Pahalgam meadow started just short of 2 pm on April 22. In barely 10 minutes, 'three terrorists in dark clothes' shot dead 26 people, including a local pony ride operator, and injured several others. As cries of pain, shock and grief broke out, the terrorists melted into the forest nearby. Earlier that day, four couples and three children, including Lucky's family, had travelled with 31-year-old Nazakat to sightsee around Pahalgam, a one-day stop in their Kashmir itinerary. At the ticket counter, the guide greeted his cousin — 30-year-old Syed Adil Hussain Shah, the ill-fated pony operator — before entering the park. Nazakat, who has been working as a tour guide since 2010, has known Parashar's family for years. For four months each year, his family sells shawls and other Kashmiri goods in Chhattisgarh. Two of his brothers, too, are involved in the tourism sector, helping yatris traverse the Amarnath route every year. At around 2 pm, Nazakat approached Lucky, who was near one end of the zipline that runs through the park, to ask if his family was ready to move to the next spot. 'I wanted to take them to 'ABC' — Aru Valley, Betaab Valley and Chandanwari (in Pahalgam). Lucky said the children really loved Baisaran and wanted to stay there a while longer,' says Nazakat, recalling how the three children in the group shrieked with joy as they ran all over the meadow. In the middle of his exchange with Lucky, he remembers the echo of a loud 'crack'. It was followed by another. And then a volley of shots. 'It took me a minute to realise what was happening. This place is so remote, so peaceful that even a local like me did not immediately realise that we were under attack,' he says. As soon as he realised the danger, Nazakat grabbed the youngest child in the group, a boy aged two, followed by the other two. Holding them close, he lay flat on the ground, just like the others lying prone nearby. While Lucky lay next to him, his wife and the rest of the group were elsewhere in the park. Chhattisgarh BJP youth wing worker Arvind Agrawal, who was also part of the group, had told The Indian Express earlier that his four-year-old daughter was among those Nazakat had shielded. As the gunshots grew louder, Nazakat knew he had to get out. The ticket gate was too far. As he looked around for another way out, Nazakat spotted a gap in the fence. 'Lucky told me, 'whatever happens, save the kids'. I have two daughters myself, he did not have to explain. I had spotted three people in dark clothes walking in the meadow earlier…. I had to think about the children first,' he says. Amid the gunshots, Nazakat called up the driver he had hired to ferry the family, instructing him to take a different route and meet him 'near the spring that flows close to the park'. A split second later, he grabbed the three children, and, with Lucky, made a beeline for the gap in the fence. 'The taxi driver had heard the gunshots too. He also took a while to realise that it was the sound of bullets,' says Nazakat. Running along the spring, Nazakat, the children and Lucky reached the car 10 minutes later. Once the children were inside, Nazakat turned around — back towards the meadow and the gunshots — to track down the remainder of his group. The gate near the ticket counter was open, he recalls, allowing those on the park's periphery to get away. At the fence, he saw pony wallahs rushing panicked tourists down the slope on ponies even as shots continued to ring. 'It had rained two days ago. The path was still extremely slippery,' he says. Despite the chaos, Nazakat managed to locate all seven remaining members of his group. He says he took the stunned tourists back to their hotel in Pahalgam. The next day, April 23, he accompanied them to Srinagar airport, nearly 80 km from Pahalgam. 'They were scared. They wanted to leave Srinagar. I knew that no matter what I said, they would not stay back if they could leave,' he says. Srinagar airport was overrun with victims, their families, panicked tourists and VIPs. Lucky's family failed to get a flight out. 'They were scheduled to leave on April 24 anyway. They ended up taking the same flight,' he says. It was on his way to Srinagar on April 23 that Nazakat found out about his cousin succumbing to the bullet injuries he had sustained during the attack. Adil, too, was attempting to save some tourists in the park when he was shot. 'It struck me then that in my rush to get the guests out, I had forgotten to check on Adil,' he says. On Friday, April 25, three days after the attack, Nazakat was still in Pahalgam, still answering calls from 'customers who are now friends'. 'They have been checking on my well-being since Tuesday. Many tourists who I've travelled with earlier have been calling too to check on me and my family.' Before answering yet another 'wellness check' from one of his 'friends', Nazakat says: 'People in the centre of the bowl (at the park) bore the brunt of the attack. I don't know how I would have lived with myself had one of my guests been injured or worse.
Mint
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Mint
‘She's my daughter': How Kashmiri guide Nazakat Ali saved BJP leader's daughter from terrorists in Pahalgam attack
'She's my daughter': A Kashmiri guide, the cousin of the only local killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, saved the life of a BJP leader's daughter by calling her his own. Arvind Agrawal, a member of the Chhattisgarh unit of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was in the Baisaran Valley when the heinous terror attack, in which 26 tourists were killed, took place. Hailing from Raipur, Agrawal was on a holiday in Kashmir with his wife, children, and several family friends—11 people in total. Two days after the attack, the BJP leader wrote a heartfelt post for Nazakat Ali, their tour guide, and said, 'You risked your life to save ours. We will never be able to thank Nazakat bhai enough.' Arvind Agrawal's Facebook post Talking to The Quint over the phone, Arvind Agrawal said he and his group ducked upon hearing gunshots and screams from nearby, and had also attempted to jump the fences to escape. However, he said, his four-year-old daughter Samriddhi got scared by the noise and started to run across the open ground. While his friends physically held him back, his wife, Pooja, followed their daughter to rescue her. 'I was confused whether it was the sound of bullets or crackers. My wife, Pooja, by then, had already reached the middle of the ground where my friend and his family were,' he said. But to save the day, 'Nazakat bhai was with them.' 'He was holding my daughter,' Agrawal said, adding that when a terrorist asked Nazakat who the girl was, 'he replied that she was his daughter. He left after.' Agrawal shared that the local ponywallahs then helped them escape on ponies. He also said that the locals then helped take his wife to the hospital, as she had fractured her shoulder. 'While escaping, my wife fractured her shoulder, and with the help of locals, we were taken to the Pahalgam Hospital.' Nazakat Ali told the Quint that he was playing with the children when he heard gunshots. 'I was playing with the children when we heard one or two shots going off. We assumed some children were playing with crackers, but the firing increased around that time. So, I grabbed the children and took off,' he said. He said the 'incident marks the death of humanity,' but he is thankful to have been able to save the tourists and their children. 'It should not have happened at any cost. I just find happiness in the fact that I could rescue those 11 people and make sure they reached home safely,' Nazakat said. He shared that Arvind Agrawal and his family took shelter while he carried their children to their cars. 'I then took them to Pahalgam, from where they were taken to Srinagar,' Nazakat recalled. First Published: 26 Apr 2025, 12:09 PM IST
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First Post
25-04-2025
- First Post
‘Would take a bullet': Meet the brave Pahalgam guide who saved the lives of children and BJP worker
Nazakat Ahmad Shah, a 30-year-old Kashmiri guide, didn't think twice before risking his own safety to save tourists during the Pahalgam attack. As terrorists began spraying bullets in Baisaran valley, Nazakat helped 11 tourists, including children, escape the horror, while tragically losing his cousin read more The 30-year-old Kashmiri guide, Nazakat Ahmad Shah, risked his own safety during the Pahalgam terror attack to to protect the people he had been hosting. Image courtesy: X 'I wanted to host them at my home, and since they were my guests, I would have taken a bullet before anything was to happen to them.' That one sentence says everything about the kind of person Nazakat Ahmad Shah is. The local guide from Kashmir didn't think twice when gunshots rang out just kilometres away in Baisaran valley in Pahalgam on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. The 30-year-old guide risked his own safety as he ran to protect the people he had been hosting. The group, which included families and children from Chhattisgarh, were rushed to safety as chaos and tragedy unfolded around them. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Nazakat, however, lost his own cousin during the attack, which claimed the lives of 25 others and one local who ferried tourists on horseback. The incident was shared by the Chhattisgarh BJP youth wing worker Arvind Agrawal, who was among those saved by Nazakat. His story has since been widely shared online, with many calling the local Kashmiri the face of real bravery and humanity. Here's what happened. 'Hugged children as firing started' Arvind Agrawal and his family, wife Pooja and their four-year-old daughter were on the last leg of their Kashmir trip. They were accompanied by the families of Kuldeep Sthapak, Shivansh Jain and Happy Wadhavan. The group of 11 were headed to Pahalgam on Tuesday with Nazakat Ahmad Shah, a local from Kashmir, who sells shawls in Chirmiri town of Chhattisgarh during the winters. They knew him personally, and he had looked forward to hosting them. 'Pahalgam was to be the last venue as my village is close by, and I wanted to host them because Kashmiris have a passion for hospitality,' he told PTI. The group reached Baisaran around noon. Children were riding ponies, the adults were busy clicking photos. But soon, chaos broke out. Arvind Agrawal shared a picture of Nazakat and his four-year-old daughter during their Kashmir trip. Image courtesy: Instagram/@ArvindAgarwal 'Lucky (Kuldeep) and I were talking, and I told him we were getting late and should head back. He replied we'd leave after taking a few more pictures,' Nazakat recalled. 'While we were talking,we heard gunshots. Initially, we thought they were firecrackers. But suddenly, people started running in panic — there were thousands of tourists running here and there. That's when we realised it was gunfire.' The gunfire came from close to where the group was standing, Nazakat recalled. 'The firing was taking place near the zipline, about 20 metres from where we were standing. I first asked all those around me to lie down on the ground. Then I spotted a gap in the fencing and guided the children towards it. We escaped from the spot before the terrorists could come near us,' he told The Indian Express. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Arvind Agrawal said other tourists pulled him to safety, but his wife and daughter were some distance away, still with Nazakat and another family. Nazakat went back. 'I returned to find Agrawal ji's wife, who had run in another direction. I found her nearly one-and-a-half kilometres away and brought her back in my car,' he said. 'Thanks to Allah, I took all 11 guests safely to Pahalgam,' he added. But the day came with heartbreak too. Nazakat's cousin, 30-year-old Syed Adil Hussain Shah, was killed in the attack, reportedly while trying to stop the terrorists. Nazakat couldn't even attend the funeral. He chose instead to ensure the tourists got back safely. 'Tourism is our bread and butter. We are unemployed without it, and our children's education depends on this…The terror attack is like an attack on our hearts. We shut the doors of our shops and businesses and are protesting,' he said. 'We are known for our hospitality and I believe tourists will come. Security forces should be more vigilant.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Will never be able to repay the debt of Nazakat Bhai' After the traumatic experience in Pahalgam, the tourists who were saved by the Kashmiri guide took to social media to express their gratitude. Agrawal posted pictures of him and his daughter with Nazakat and wrote, 'You saved our lives by risking your own. We will never be able to repay the debt of Nazakat Bhai.' Like Agrawal, Sthapak also posted a heartfelt message for Nazakat, a local newspaper reported. 'A letter written from the heart to Nazakat Bhai… My brother, the passion and bravery with which you rescued us from there is still echoing in my ears. There was chaos, gunshots, screams and the shadow of death all around. No ordinary person can do that.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He described the moment when Nazakat picked up his child, sat him on his shoulders and ran 14 km on the hills. 'Nazakat bhai, you not only saved my life that day, you kept humanity alive. I will never forget you for the rest of my life,' he added. With input from agencies
