First flight out: Tourists recall Kashmir horrors

As an Air India Express flight from Srinagar landed around 3.30 pm at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Wednesday, over 190 anxious tourists walked out — many still shaken by the previous day's terror attack in Pahalgam.

- Jignasa Sinha

NEW DELHI:

The crowd, which included newlyweds from Jaipur, a Gurugram-based IT professional and his family, a priest from Hyderabad, and two friends from Mumbai, was immediately swarmed by media personnel.

Among the first to exit Terminal 3 were Komal and Mihir Soni, a couple from Jaipur who had come to Kashmir for their honeymoon. On Tuesday, while visiting Baisaran Valley — a lush, alpine meadow above Pahalgam — they witnessed the firing firsthand.

"I was eating Maggi when I saw a man, then heard a gunshot. The shopkeeper told me it was nothing, but then more shots rang out. A man ran toward the shop and fired at another man. He was killed just 50 metres from us," said Komal, 25, choking up. "We all ducked down, praying for our lives. When people started running, we followed."

Her husband, Mihir, 26, added, "I was at the same bhelpuri stall where Lieutenant Vinay Narwal was shot. I had just walked away. I saw him. It could have been me."

Narwal, a 26-year-old Navy officer from Karnal, was among the 26 people killed by terrorists on Tuesday afternoon. The Sonis had reached Baisaran with a crowd of tourists just before the gunmen opened fire around 2.30 pm.