Mission Kashmir: Hyderabadis in a desperate struggle to reach loved ones

Atif Abrar is an IT professional working in Hyderabad, but his family stays in Jammu & Kashmir, more specifically Jawahar Nagar, one of the worst flood-hit regions of Srinagar. “I assumed I had lost them when there was no word from them. I left for Srinagar three days ago with medicines, baby food etc. — 20 kilos in all. My intention was to get supplies to people who needed them. In the meanwhile, I started searching for my parents, a search which lasted for five very long days. And then I came to know that they had miraculously survived,” says Atif, who is currently in Srinagar helping out with the supplies.

“Dad and mum were stranded inside a three-storey building and my mother waded out on her own, found a boat five kilometres away and then came back to rescue the others from the building — around 20 others,” says Atif. Atif adds the way the supplies are being channelised needs to improve.

Shane Kariwow, a working professional from the city, is just back from Kashmir. “Since the weather started to worsen, we came back, we had earlier gone there for a vacation. My sister is based in Kashmir, while the rest of our family stays in Hyderabad. She is still there,” he says.

They had lost touch with her and we were fearing the worst when suddenly she called on Sunday. “She had spotted a boat passing by and she borrowed a mobile phone from them to give us a call. She has fever and hasn’t eaten for five days and her building is flooded. I don’t know when we’ll hear from her again. My family is pretty shaken up,” Kariwow says.

Shane’s father is currently in Delhi trying to get more information about his sister and his grandparents.

Gaurav Sanghi, a Hyderabad-based entrepreneur, was in Jammu & Kashmir with fourteen of his family members, for a family celebration. “We were staying at The Lalit Grand Palace, a former royal residence and now a hotel, in Srinagar,” says Gaurav.

Since the hotel is at a considerable height, its premises weren’t flooded. But Gaurav and his family spent days with limited food, electricity and water. “Only 15-20 of us could be airlifted at a time. We took our neighbour’s baby with us and reunited it with its grandmother in New Delhi,” says Gaurav, who landed in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Gaurav admits prospects look very grim. “The choppers were taking people from a location near the hotel; but there were hundreds of people waiting to be evacuated. There were many rescued people staying at the hotel premises too,” he says. “We were fortunate that we were safe. We saw news reports showing dead bodies, of several unfortunate people, floating on the surface. Also, we were lucky to be part of a large family group, spanning ages 13-75, and we kept each other’s sprits high,” he says.

Danish Manzoor, who works for a national paper and a former student of Osmania University, flew to Kashmir to rescue his stranded parents. “I had sent my parents’ co-ordinates to the Air Force, but they were unable to process my request understandable, considering they must be inundated with requests. So I flew down there on September 10, got hold of a chopper and pilot to go to Natipura. But we had to take a detour when we received a distress call to rescue eleven people from a hotel. And when I reached my parents’ location, I could only rescue my father at the time as my mother had gone out looking for supplies,” says Danish.

He stayed in Kashmir for two days and then flew back to Hyderabad. “My family is now fine; they are living with other relatives. I flew out because I did not want to add to the load there,” says Danish, who feels locals did much more than the government. “Right from managing traffic to feeding people who had just been rescued, the locals did what the government should have,” he says.