Bengaluru:
Saved by a hair — literally. That’s what sums up the miraculous escape of the Hegdes, a Karnataka family visiting Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadows on April 22, when terrorists murdered 25 tourists and a Kashmiri pony ride operator in cold blood.
Pradeep Hegde, his wife Shubha Hegde and their son Siddhant reached Srinagar on April 21 and headed for Pahalgam the next morning. High on their itinerary was Baisaran, popularly known as ‘Mini Switzerland’. “We hired three horses. The road is terrible. It had rained and it was very muddy and slippery. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to reach the top,” Pradeep told NDTV in an exclusive interview a week after the family’s narrow escape.
He said horsemen at Baisaran drop tourists and return later to take them back downhill. “When we went inside, there was a huge crowd,” Pradeep said. “When you enter, to your right, where the zipline starts, there is an empty area. We thought we would click some pics there. We spent around an hour there,” he added.
The next plan, he said, was to go towards the area in the Valley where adventure activities were being held and some stalls were also put up. “Around 1.45 pm, we thought of going there. But my son said he was hungry. We tried to convince him that we can eat before leaving. But he was adamant. So we headed towards the makeshift food stalls. We ordered Maggi. My wife then went to the washroom, about 500 metres away. It was a pay and use toilet, so she returned, took money and went again. By that time, we had eaten and she hurriedly ate.”
Pradeep said they had ordered tea when they heard the first shots. “At the time, we did not know they were bullets,” he said, adding that even the shop owner told them it could be crackers’ sounds. “We thought they were bursting crackers to scare animals.”
“About 15-20 seconds later, we saw two guys with big guns. They were shooting continuously,” Pradeep said, adding that while one terrorist went towards the lower part of the Valley, another headed towards them.
“Initially, we did not realise what was happening. Then we lay down. At this point, my wife thought of getting my bag, which was on the table. Our IDs and phones were in it. She got up to take the bag and felt something go past her right ear. It was a bullet,” Pradeep said.
Shubha told NDTV, “Now I am thinking why I got up. At that moment, we did not know anything. When I bent down to take the bag, something touched my hair. I didn’t realise it was a bullet. But because of the force, I turned and realised the bullet had hit the floor. God saved me. But I didn’t tell my husband and son because I feared they might get scared,” she said.
Pradeep said he had no clue at that point that it was a terrorist attack. “Someone shouted, maybe the horsemen, and asked people to run towards the gate. I was 100 per cent sure we would die, but my wife kept saying, ‘nothing will happen’. That confidence saved us.”
He said there was a rush at the gate as everyone was trying to get out. “My son fell down, somehow we came out. Once out, we did not know which way to go. Someone showed us the way. We fell many times, we ran for 2-3 km, then we saw our horse guy hiding behind a tree. We asked him to save us, and he came with us. My son eventually said he can’t run anymore. We saw horses running downhill, so we requested him to catch one, just for our son,” Pradeep said, recounting their harrowing experience. Later, he said, the horseman managed to catch two more horses for the couple and helped them come downhill to safety.