'Ruko! Udhar firing shuru hai': Bargain and delay in getting horses save 28 Maharashtra tourists from walking into Pahalgam terror site

KOLHAPUR: Getting your horses together really can save lives. A group of 28 tourists — from Kolhapur, Sangli, Pune, and Ratnagiri districts — learnt this first hand when their wait for horses delayed their trip to the Baisaran Valley on Tuesday afternoon. The group of 28 people from Kolhapur, Sangli, Pune, and Ratnagiri had gone to Kashmir on April 17.
"If it wasn't for the delay, we would have been at the spot when the terror attack took place. The list of casualties would have had our names too," said Anil Kurane, a resident of Kapshi village in Kolhapur's Kagal tehsil.
"The horse owners had initially demanded Rs 3,200 per head. We spent nearly 15 minutes bargaining with them. An additional 15 minutes was spent getting all 28 horses together. Finally, when we sat on the horses and had covered barely 500 metres of the 2km ride, our local driver came running. He was screaming: ‘Ruko! Udhar firing shuru hain, aage mat jao (Wait! There is firing going on at the site. Do not go there)'," added Kurane.
Scared, the entire group immediately returned to their vehicle.
Shivprakash Chougule, from Dapoli in Ratnagiri, said, "We had booked a stay at a hotel in Pahalgam for Tuesday night. But it was in a forest area, so we didn't feel safe. We decided to go to Srinagar instead."
Gajanan Patil, owner of Kolhapur's Abhay Tours, said, "Our group was saved because of the delay in getting horses. After the attack, our group requested to shift to Srinagar. Somehow, I was able to book seven rooms in Srinagar by paying double the normal charges, all in advance."