Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
Journalist Anustup Roy Barman, who is in Jammu and Kashmir on a holiday, was on his way to Pahalgam from Sonmarg around 2.30 pm, when he heard, “Encounter hua hai, sunne mein aya hai do log ghayal huye hai [I heard there has been a shooting and two people have been killed].”
It was a narrow escape for him and his group of friends.
“Had it not been a delay of half an hour from our end, we would have been in the same place, and would have perhaps met the same end,” Roy Barman told The Telegraph Online over the phone on Wednesday.
“We were on our way to Pahalgam. We were supposed to stay there yesterday and today. En route to Baisaran valley, which was on our list of tourist spots to visit, we were stopped by the army near Ashmukam and were made to take a U-turn. It is then that a cab driver said — ‘Encounter hua hai, sunne mein aya hai do log ghayal huye hai’. More information followed after some time when friends and family started to call us. We wasted no time and started for Srinagar.”
He and his friends returned to Srinagar on Tuesday. Finding a room in a hotel was difficult, because panic has led hundreds of tourists to rush back to Srinagar.
Roy Barman and his friends are planning to come back to Kolkata on April 25.
“We tried to advance our return but the flight prices have surged, and we have to pay approximately Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per person, which is not possible, and we are stranded here,” he said.
Another resident of Kolkata’s Salt Lake, Dr Anindya Pal, recalled his narrow escape.
“We were at Chandanwari and we had a sight-seeing planned for Baisaran valley. On our way back from Chandanwari, we noticed local shopkeepers closing their shops in a hurry. We got to know about the terror strike and noticed police and ambulance movement along with helicopters going towards Baisaran valley,” Pal said.
Panic started to spread among the tourists and the locals and the army asked the tourists to return to their hotels, he recalled.
Pal and his family started from Chandanwari to Katra around 4am Wednesday.
“Right now, we are approximately 170km from Katra and the road is filled with tourist cars making their way to Jammu. The entire stretch has heavy deployment of security personnel and strict checking of cars is being done,” Pal said.
Pal also could not afford to reschedule his air tickets because of the skyrocketing prices. They plan to take a train.
Srinagar came to a standstill Wednesday, with most shops closed. While there is no embargo on tourists to be on the streets, most of them preferred to stay inside.
“There is heavy army deployment outside and the homes of the locals are being checked. The security is very tight in the tourist spots here. Roads are mostly empty,” Roy Barman said.
The locals have been apologising to the tourists and are worried that the attack and the situation in the Valley will affect tourist inflow and their livelihoods, both tourists told The Telegraph Online.
Not in our name – that’s the message that Kashmir sent out on Wednesday, with people pouring into the streets across towns and villages to express their anguish and condemn the terror attack.
Amid the chaos and panic, Pal experienced Kashmiri hospitality.
“The hotel where we stayed made our dinner complimentary and the locals were very empathetic and helpful. They held our hands with tears in their eyes, worried about their sustenance. Will anyone come to Kashmir out of love, they asked us,” he said.
But concerns remain.
“Our hotel was approximately 6km from the Pahalgam toll booth. We expected tighter security on the streets,” Pal said.
