As bullets tore through the calm of Pahalgam’s serene landscape, a family from Nagpur found themselves in the middle of a nightmare they never imagined. The couple—on vacation with their young son—narrowly escaped the deadly terrorist attack that claimed at least 27 lives in South Kashmir on April 22. Their story of survival is both haunting and heroic.

“We just kept running”

Recounting the moment terror struck, the husband said they were about 20 minutes away from the site when they heard the first burst of gunfire.
“People were screaming, pushing, crying… We didn’t stop to think. We didn’t even look back. We just ran.”

Her leg was fractured—she still didn’t stop

In the chaos, the wife stumbled and fractured her leg. Despite the injury, she refused to give up. Her husband held her hand, shielding her and their child, urging her forward through a narrow, 4-foot-wide path flooded with terrified tourists.

“Stopping meant death,” he said. “I kept telling her, we can’t stop now. I had to get my wife and son to safety.”

Panic, screams, and gunfire all around

The family described the scene as absolute chaos—bullets whizzing by, people falling, children wailing.
“People kept shouting, ‘Gunfire! Run!’” the husband recalled. “It felt like death was right in front of our eyes.”

From paradise to a nightmare

What was supposed to be a peaceful trip to Kashmir turned into a day they’ll never forget.
“We came here to see beauty,” the wife said from her hospital bed. “But we found ourselves in a warzone. We were fighting to survive.”

As the nation mourns the lives lost, stories like this one highlight not just the horror of the attack—but the courage of those who lived through it.