It’s all still a bloody haze for Arvind Agrawal. The gunshots he mistook for crackers, the blood splattered on his daughter’s shoes, yelling at a policeman for help and finally seeing his wife and child return to safety on horseback.

Arvind is yet to come to terms with the massacre in the picturesque meadows of Baisaran in Pahalgam, more than six months after the terror attack. What he clearly remembers is his childhood friend Nazakat Ahmad Shah carrying his daughter to safety and telling a stranger that she was his own child.

Arvind, 35, is an RSS member and a functionary of the BJP’s youth wing in the coal-mining town of Chirmiri on the banks of the Hasdeo river in Chhattisgarh.

Nazakat, 30, is a woollen seller from a village near Baisaran, who sets up shop in Chirmiri every winter. Before Nazakat, his father had sold woollens in the Chhattisgarh town for 35 years.

Last week, Arvind greeted Nazakat with garlands, bouquets and crackers upon his arrival in Chirmiri. Residents from Chirmiri and neighbouring towns have thrown parties for Nazakat and felicitated him for getting 11 locals back home unscathed.

“Some people ask me why I am promoting him so much. They say it will hurt my political career. But he saved our lives. How can I ever
repay him?” Arvind told The Telegraph.

Hindutva zealots were accused of attacking Muslims in several parts of India in retaliation for the Pahalgam carnage in which non-Muslims were targeted. The only Muslim among the 26 victims of the April 22 terror attack was Nazakat’s cousin and pony ride operator, Syed Adil Hussain Shah.

Asked if he had faced any such unpleasant situation, Nazakat said: “I have never faced any trouble in Chhattisgarh. I have known all these friends since I was a child. What a surprise they have given me!”

“I had been asking them all to visit Kashmir for the last four years. This year, they finally agreed, and I went to Jammu with two Innovas and picked them up,” the Kashmiri trader told this paper.

Pahalgam was their last port of call after visiting all the main tourist spots in Jammu and Kashmir.

“When the first shots were fired, I thought they were crackers, but my wife Pooja said it was gunfire. She ran towards our four-year-old daughter Samriddhi, who was on a swing 100 metres away. The firing had intensified, and an elderly man was hit. His blood and pieces of flesh were splattered on our daughter’s shoes,” Arvind said, piecing together the traumatic memories.

“My wife tried to approach a man in fatigues, thinking he was a soldier. He asked them to lie down. It all happened so fast. My wife realised he was a terrorist when he began to shoot people. Nazakat held my daughter in his arms and said ‘she is my daughter’.” Arvind added.

Arvind and others managed to escape through one route while Nazakat took Pooja and Samriddhi through a separate route. In the rush, Pooja tripped over a fence and fractured a shoulder. While Nazakat was helping others, Pooja and Samriddhi fled into a forest and were rescued by a pony ride operator.

“I was crying after I reached Pahalgam town. I shouted at an additional DGP to bring back my wife and child. Then I saw Pooja on horseback wearing a pheran. She said that her clothes were torn and the pony ride operator gave her his pheran,” Arvind said.

He said Nazakat never left their side for the next three days.

“He brought us food, medicines and clothes. We had left everything in the meadow. He was with us until we boarded the flight and missed his own cousin’s funeral,” Arvind added.

Nazakat said he could not be present at Adil’s funeral, but everyone in his family agreed that he did the right thing by being with his friends after the tragedy.

“Nazakat used to play with us and sit in our classroom when his father sold sweaters. This tragedy has brought us even closer. The hospitality his family showed us is something I had not experienced before... I hope the Chhattisgarh government rewards him. He ran repeatedly through gunfire to save the 11 people from Chirmiri,” Arvind said.