New Delhi: When Sheikh Salim Gafur, hero of the Amarnath terror attack, arrived in Surat with 52 pilgrims, whose lives he saved, he was greeted by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. After greeting the Amarnath hero, Rupani promised he would recommend Gafur’s name for the bravery award. The CM came through on his word and this Republic Day, Gafur will be recognized for his actions that saved the lives of his passengers. On July 10, 2017, a bus carrying 60 pilgrims was returning from the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir. Around 8:30 pm, when the bus reached Batengoo in Amarnath district, a group of militants attacked the bus and started firing indiscriminately. It resulted in the deaths of eight passengers and some others were grievously injured.
Sheikh Salim Gafur, the driver of the bus, kept his nerves in check. Unfazed, he kept driving the bus under heavy, continuous fire from militants. He drove far away from the spot of the attack and did not stop till he had reached a security post, thus saving the lives of the remaining 52 passengers.
The next day, they were airlifted from Srinagar Technical Airport in a C130 Hercules at 10 am, they reached Surat around 1 pm. Terrorists first attacked the combined checkpoint of STF, SOG and CRPF in Khannabal at around 8:15 pm, and ran towards Batengoo. No loss of life or injury was reported. The terrorists, then, targeted the bus carrying pilgrims, killing six of them, and escaped running towards Arwani area. They opened fire on the camp of G/90 battalion while running away from the spot.
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