Kashmiris treated us like brothers: Pahalgam victim

'Musafir and Sameer stood by my side like brothers. They took me to the mortuary for identification and stayed with me till 3 am,' says victim's daughter Arathi

- AM Abdussalam/ Ashraf Padanna

Arathi Menon, daughter ofN. Ramachandran, the Keralite killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, on Thursday said her Kashmiri drivers, Musafir and Sameer, treated her like a sister and stood by her in the most traumatic moments of her life, Arathi survived the gruesome massacre on Tuesday along with her mother and eight-year-old twin sons. She recounted the horror a day after her father's mortal remains were brought back to Kochi, their hometown.

“Musafir and Sameer stood by my side like brothers. They took me to the mortuary for identification and stayed with me till 3 am. When the identification didn't happen that night, they picked me up again at 6 am,” Arathi said.

“At the airport, I told them I had gained two brothers from Kashmir, and that Allah would bless them,” she told media persons here on Thursday. Arathi was all praise for both government officials and local people in Kashmir ‘who extended immense support’.

“A hotel even allowed us to stay, although we hadn't checked in there,” she said, Her father, Ramachandran, was among the 26 people shot dead by terrorists at a meadow in Baisaran near Pahalgam in Kashmir valley on Tuesday.