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The only regret of Rauf Qureshi, Irshad Bhatt, and Sartaj Ahmed Wani is they couldn’t save a man they carried
Photos of Sartaj Ahmed carrying an injured teenager have since gone viral. Image/News18
Rauf Qureshi received the first call at 2.35 pm on April 22 from his pony handlers. Rauf owns ponies that regularly ferry tourists to Baisaran valley near Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam town and back. But Tuesday was different. Within minutes, Rauf and his fellow residents, Irshad Bhatt and Sartaj Ahmed Wani, ran up the trek path. Photos of Sartaj Ahmed carrying an injured teenager have since gone viral. Sartaj told News18 he had rushed to Baisaran after receiving a message on their local WhatsApp group from the Pony Association head about tourists getting injured.
Rauf Qureshi said the first call that he received seemed unbelievable. “My worker said there was firing in Baisaran. That day, at least 5,000 people were up in the meadow. At least 3,000 must have been tourists, the rest locals… There was a sense of panic,” he said.
Narrating the way the day unfolded, Rauf said, “My worker said that the firing must have lasted for 10 minutes or so. As soon as we got the call, we rushed up. Those who had no injuries, we calmed them down and sent them down on horses. Others we carried on our backs.”
A video shot after Tuesday’s terror attack that killed 26 people showed Rauf guiding an elderly lady down the slippery slope. Irshad Bhatt, who is also seen in the video offering help, told CNN-News18, “We must have made at least five trips up and down to bring back people on our backs and drop them at the Pahalgam hospital. Ordinarily, it takes 40 minutes to trek up. But we must have completed each trip that day in 20 minutes.”
Recalling the trauma, Irshad says, “When CRPF and army soldiers started coming up, we were halfway down with some survivors. The kids and women were so traumatised that they mistook the army for terrorists. They were screaming, ‘Please spare us. Please don’t kill my child.’ Their cries were unbearable.”
The only regret of the group is that they couldn’t save a man they carried. “He was bleeding. I had him on my back… and ran all the way down to Pahalgam hospital. Later, we learnt the tourist died of blood loss,” Irshad says.
“A proper hospital would have saved him. We have often demanded better medical facilities at a place like this, where so many tourists come. Maybe now they will pay heed to the demand,” Rauf says.