Heard Gunshots for 15 mins: Bihar Food Seller Vows Never to Return

Hours before at least 26 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam, Abu Basar — who hails from Bihar's Araria, and runs a food stall at the exit gate of the meadow where the attack happened — had spoken to three of his cousins in his village to and encouraged them to board the next train to Kashmir and come to Pahalgam for work.

- Sanjeev K Jha

SRINAGAR/JAMMU: The Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, almost all of them tourists, has set off a scramble among an estimated 200,000 tourists in Jammu & Kashmir to exit the Union Territory.

With limited flights and trains, and road transport fraught with risks, authorities, including security agencies, were engaged in a mammoth evacuation operation on Wednesday.

"It's heartbreaking to see the exodus of our guests from the Valley after yesterday's tragic terror attack in Pahalgam but at the same time we totally understand why people would want to leave," chief minister Omar Abdullah posted on X.

Inclement weather had closed the road between Jammu and Srinagar but the state government opened it partially on Wednesday to help tourists return home.

"While DGCA & the Ministry of Civil Aviation are working to organise extra flights, NH-44 between Srinagar & Jammu has been reconnected for traffic in a single direction," Abdullah added on X.

"I've directed the administration to facilitate traffic between Srinagar and Jammu allowing tourist vehicles to leave. This will have to be done in a controlled and organised way because the road is still unstable in places and we are also working hard to clear all the stranded vehicles. We will not be able to permit completely free movement of vehicles at the moment and we hope that everyone will cooperate with us," he said.