Pahalgam Terror Attack: Daughter’s Fear Of Horses Saved This Bhopal Family

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Their 12-year-old daughter was afraid of horses, so the Chauhan family from Bhopal, touring the JK earlier this week, skipped the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam on April 22 and travelled to Srinagar instead. That saved them from the carnage that was to unfold in the Valley.

Forest officer Narendra Kumar Chauhan told the Free Press he, along with his wife, son (5), and daughter, were on a J-K tour. They were planning to start for the Baisaran Valley around 10 am. But when his daughter learnt they would have to ride horses to the Valley, she developed cold feet as she is afraid of horses. The family then proceeded to Srinagar. “We were having lunch at a hotel when we got to know of the massacre at Baisaran. I was shocked beyond words. But for my daughter’s fear of horse riding, we would have been at the place when the killers came,” Chauhan said.

The family caught a flight to Delhi the same evening and then took the Vande Bharat Express the next morning to reach Bhopal. “My wife is yet to get out of the trauma. She hasn’t been able to sleep properly since. She keeps wondering what would’ve happened had we gone there,” he said.

According to Chauhan, the atmosphere before and after the incident was exactly opposite.Besides them, a few tourists from Madhya Pradesh who were in the Valley on April 22 and have returned since, said that as the news of the attack spread in the Kashmir Valley, the scene changed within hours.

The holiday mood was replaced by panic, and everyone wanted to leave as soon as possible, fearing more such attacks. However, they said, the locals were extremely helpful and courteous to them.

Tour operator cancels trip

Moniteesh, a tour operator, had gone to the Valley along with a 57-member group from different places, including Bhopal and Indore. They were at the Aaru Valley in Pahalgam and were planning to travel to Baisaran, which was 25 km away.

“After the incident, we cancelled our plans. But the next day, there was a strike in the Valley in protest against the shootout, and we could not leave. We missed our train. We reached Jammu on the third day and caught a train to Bhopal,” he said.

Some proceeded to Gulmarg

Abhishek, who works in the private sector, was in Srinagar along with his family when the attack happened. “Within minutes, the crowded market was deserted as people returned to the safety of their homes,” he said. It was good that even after the incident, tourist spots other than Pahalgam were not shut. “Some tourists did visit Gulmarg, Sonmarg, etc., after the incident,” he said, adding that he had planned to visit Pahalgam on May 2 but cancelled the plan.

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