Nearly six months after local guide Nazakat Ahmed Shah rescued the family of a Chhattisgarh BJP youth worker during the Pahalgam terror attack in South Kashmir, he received a warm welcome in the state. The April attack had left 26 people dead and many injured.
Shah, whose family has been visiting undivided Madhya Pradesh and now Chhattisgarh to sell clothes for 30 years, had helped save the family of BJP youth wing worker Arvind Agrawal, who was in Pahalgam with his family and friends during the attack. On his first visit to Chhattisgarh since the incident, Shah was received by Agrawal and other families from Chirmiri in Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur district who had been caught in the firing.
Recalling the day, Agrawal, 35, said he had been pulled to safety, but his wife and four-year-old daughter were some distance away. “When the firing started, Nazakat asked everyone to lie down and hugged my daughter and my friend’s son, saving their lives. He then rushed them to safety before going back to rescue my wife,” he had told this newspaper earlier.
Recalling the day, Agrawal, 35, said he had been pulled to safety, but his wife and four-year-old daughter were some distance away.
On Thursday, Agrawal said, “We were very happy to see him. Around 50 people felicitated him with bouquets and garlands. A friend and I thanked him for saving our lives. He had lunch with our family.”
After the felicitation, Shah told the media, “First of all I want to thank the media. As I had said earlier, they are like our elder brothers and we have been coming to Chhattisgarh for years. I felt very happy that we were in touch over the phone after the attack and I feel elated to meet them now. Chhattisgarh is like home to us and we come here for three months every year for business.”
Recalling the attack, Shah said, “I was playing with a child [from Agrawal’s group] and his family was making reels when shots were fired. At first, we thought they were firecrackers. But when the sounds grew louder, I asked them to lie on the ground. It was terrifying… There was a lot of crying and screaming. While some tourists managed to escape on their own, I helped take some to safety.”
