Missed by Minutes: How Luck Saved 41 Tourists in Pahalgam

Amidst the heartbreaking tales of death in the Pahalgam terror attacks that left 27 tourists dead, here is an incredible survival story of 41 tourists who cheated death. The victims’ count would have been unimaginably high had luck played spoilsport with these tourists from Kerala and Maharashtra.

On the fateful afternoon of April 22, just 15 minutes before heading to the Baisaran meadow, aka Mini Switzerland, where the massacre took place, a Kochi tourist family had to halt at a roadside eatery for lunch upon the insistence of the head of a family of 11. However, they couldn’t eat the excessively salty rogan josh meal. Noticing the plight of the tourists, the eatery staff offered to cook a fresh meal, causing a delay of an hour, and the family escaped the tragedy eventually. After finishing their lunch, the family witnessed chaos and fear within 2 km of Baisaran and quickly returned to their hotel rooms.

In a similar story of luck, 28 people from Kolhapur, Sangli, Ratnagiri, and Pune in Maharashtra escaped the Baisaran massacre when the horses they booked to reach Mini Switzerland were delayed. The Baisaran lacks a motorable road, forcing the tourists either to trek or take a horseback ride to reach the meadows. Little did they know that their agonizing wait for the horses arrival turned into a lifesaver. Soon after the news of the firing spread across the valley, their driver alerted them and urged them to turn back to their hotel rooms.

While the Baisaran terror attack left a just-married couple’s dreamy honeymoon in tears, with the husband losing his life, here’s another story of luck that saved the lives of another newly married couple from Jaipur, Rajasthan. The newlyweds, Mihir Soni and Komal Soni, halted a few meters from the meadows to enjoy a plate of bhelpuri. Coincidentally, the slain Indian Navy officer Vinay Narwal and his wife also had bhelpuri from the same vendor before Mihir and Komal.