'20 minutes separated us from death': Nagpur couple recounts how they escaped Pahalgam terror attack

Tilak Roopchandani

A Nagpur-based business couple, Tilak and Simran Roopchandani, miraculously escaped the Pahalgam terror attack on tourists that claimed the lives of 26 people, by 20 minutes. "Just 20 minutes separated us from death," the couple said, while recounting the horror.

“We cheated death by a whisker. We had just left Baisaran Valley, when we heard gunshots. Everyone was trying to escape. We were just 20 minutes away from the tragedy spot. We did not look back and just ran,” Roopchandani told TOI.

Further he said that the exit gate was small - only four feet - and was jammed with fleeing tourists, when he was trying to escape with his wife and a son.

“My wife suffered a fracture in her leg. I was just worried about their safety,” said Roopchandani, a resident of Dayanand Park, Jaripatka, while talking to news agency ANI.

Simran, who is recovering at a govt-run hospital, told ANI that people were shouting "firing ho rahi hai (firing is on)" and they kept running.

"People called out that firing is taking place, just move on. People were coming from behind and pushing. We did not look back at all. There were children as well. We were finding it difficult to get out," she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday observed a two-minute silence for Pahalgam victims as he began his first address in Bihar's Madhubani after the ghastly attack. Meanwhile, top Congress leaders held an emergency meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC) to deliberate on the terror attack.