A lunch break became a life-saver on Tuesday for a couple from Balurghat, South Dinajpur, honeymooning in Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

For another honeymooning couple from Krishnanagar, Nadia, a spur-of-the-moment trip to a Shiva temple — barely a kilometre from the site of the terrorist attack — saved their lives.

In both cases, the wives had suggested the lunch and the temple visit, respectively, their grateful husbands said.

Graphic designer Anurag Mondal, 29, and his wife Dipanvita, 26, of Rabindra Nagar in Balurghat, had planned to visit Pahalgam’s Baisaran valley and had booked ponies for the ride.

“They were about to start when Dipanvita insisted on lunch,” Mrinal Chandra Mondal, Anurag’s father, told The Telegraph in Balurghat on Wednesday. “It delayed them. They heard gunshots when they were a kilometre away from the site,” the father said. “If my bouma had not suggested lunch, they would have been caught in the firing, my son said when he called us up today (Wednesday).”

Sudipta Das, 38, a professional photographer from Bowbazar of Krishnanagar, and his wife Debashruti, 31, attributed their being alive to “God’s grace”.

The newlyweds wanted to go Baisaran valley, but Debashruti decided to visit a Shiva temple instead, Sudipta said over the phone from Srinagar.

“After the puja, our driver told us about the firing barely a kilometre away. Had we not gone to the temple as wished by my wife, we would have returned home in coffins.”

The couple reached Srinagar late on Tuesday night amid a shutdown. On their way out, they saw ambulances transporting victims of the attack — an image that left Debashruti deeply shaken.

The Kashmir terror attack has led to widespread panic among tourists from Bengal.

Plaban Pramanik, secretary of the Bus and Minibus Owners’ Association in Raiganj, who reached Delhi, on Tuesday cancelled his Kashmir trip with six families.

“We will reschedule our trip to Himachal Pradesh. No one in the group wants to visit Kashmir now,” he said over the phone from Delhi.