A day after a video of a Kashmiri local carrying an injured tourist on his back went viral in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, the man in the video – Sajad Ahmad Bhat, a shawl hawker from the region – shared his account of the horrifying events of April 22. As gunfire shattered the calm of Baisaran Valley, Bhat said he and other locals rushed to the spot to help the tourists.
“Humanity comes before religion,” said Bhat, his voice heavy with emotion. Speaking to ANI, he said he rushed to the site after the president of the Pahalgam Pony Association, Abdul Waheed Wan, alerted members through a WhatsApp group about the ongoing attack in the valley.
“We reached there around 3 pm. We gave water to the injured and lifted those who could not walk. We brought many of them to the hospital. When I saw the tourists crying, tears came to my eyes. Their arrival lights up the lamps in our houses – our life is incomplete without them.”
Baisaran Valley, often called ‘mini Switzerland’ for its alpine beauty, turned into a scene of horror as terrorists opened fire on a group of tourists, killing 26 people. The attack has been claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), an off-shoot outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India Today TV spoke to Abdul Waheed Wan, the president of the Pahalgam Pony Association, who was among the first to raise the alarm about the attack. Wan described the chaos that greeted him when he arrived. “As I reached, it was mayhem. I never imagined I would witness something like this in my life. We took the injured on our backs and tried to take them to the hospital. It was difficult to even react – I was numb – but I tried to pacify the women who were wailing,” he recalled.
Wan stressed that none of the locals were involved in the attack and that the incident had deeply traumatised the community. “Our livelihood is gone because of this. We also want our kids to be well-educated, to live in peace. The accused must face the strictest punishment. We are broken,” he said.
Both Bhat and Wan emphasised that their only concern during the attack was to help. “Humanity comes first,” Wan echoed. “We put ourselves at risk because helping the injured was our first instinct. That’s who we are.”
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