KOCHI: "My father was gunned down in front of me and my sons," Arathy R Menon, daughter of N Ramachandran, the Kochi native who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, told mediapersons on Thursday.
Arathy, who survived the attack along with her mother and eight-year-old twin sons, was recounting the harrowing ordeal they endured as part of the terror attack, on Tuesday, which claimed the lives of 26 people.
"The place where the attack unfolded is called 'mini Switzerland'. It is a small stretch of grassland surrounded by forest. Everything happened all of a sudden. Everyone was taking in the beauty of the location when suddenly we heard gunshots. Realising that it might be a terrorist attack, everyone panicked and scattered in different directions," she said.
Arathy, along with her sons and father, ran towards some structures. "It looked like a toilet facility. We hid behind it, while I tried to use my phone. But there was no mobile reception," she added.
They then tried to escape by making it past the bottom of a fence and running through the forest. However, a terrorist appeared firing his gun, which made everyone go cold, said Arathy. "The man then approached each group. We were told to lie prone on the ground. He came to me and my family and asked us to recite the kalima. He kept repeating the order. But when we pleaded ignorance, he shot my father. After that, he placed the gun on my head. Seeing this my children screamed and cried out."
After some gut-wrenching seconds, the terrorist moved on to another group. Seizing the chance, Arathy, who knew that her father was already dead, grabbed her sons and ran down a path that had the hoof prints of ponies.
"I remembered our tour guides telling us that ponies always follow a set route back to their farm after grazing. I told my sons that we would follow the hoof prints to safety. I'm not sure for how long we ran. We lost all sense of time. Our only aim was to reach safety. After going on for some time I noticed a reception signal on my phone and called our driver. I realised that we were within reach of a road when I saw military personnel running up towards the scene of the attack," she added.
According to Arathy, she only saw two terrorists. "I have no idea how many more might have been hiding in the forest," she said. A hotel nearby arranged their stay although they were not guests there.
Arathy's mother Sheela didn't join them for the trek due to a health condition. "I managed to keep my father's death from my mother until we reached Kochi. I took a lot of care to shield my mother from the news," she said.
But, she was all praise for government officials and local people. "They helped me a lot. The ordeal has got me two brothers: My driver Musafir and another man, Sameer. They stood by me through everything, took me to the mortuary and helped with formalities. I waited there till 3 am. They took care of me like a sister," she recollected.
As she left Srinagar, Arathy had one thing to say to them: "I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both."
