(ET)
It’s been exactly two years since Sheikh Saleem Gafoor, the 40-year-old bus driver from Valsad in Gujrat whose alertness saved lives of 52 Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in 2017, visited the Kashmir Valley. The annual pilgrimage is set to begin from July 1 and there is only one bus from Valsad, carrying over 50 pilgrims, coming to the holy shrine, this time. Last year, there were none and in 2017, the year when the attack took place, there were six buses carrying over 400 Yatris.
“Everyone is scared after the 2017 attack. There is only one bus out of 180 in our district which is going to be part of the Yatra. I was lucky that I survived in the attack,” Sheikh, who was awarded by President Ram Nath Kovind, told. Sheikh has been taking pilgrims for Yatra every year since 2012 but not after 2017, he says.
