‘Boatman who died saving tourists is J&K’s real hero’

Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti at the house of boatman Ghulam Muhammad Guroo to condole his death and express solidarity with his family. (Photo: Asian Age)

Ghulam Muhammad Guroo, a 60-year-old Kashmiri boatman, drowned in the Jhelum while saving three tourists after their shikara (water gondola) capsized last week in Srinagar. His body was fished out of the river on Monday.

According to witnesses, Guroo successfully rescued the tourists, but was quietly swallowed by a wave as he tried to save a bag of one of his guests on the cruise beneath Fatah Kadal footbridge in the heart of old Srinagar city on Wednesday evening. Rescuers were trying to retrieve his body since.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti visited Guroo’s family on Monday to personally offer her condolences. She called him “our hero” and said that the boatman from the city’s Rajbagh locality had, by his valiant act, set another glaring example of ‘Kashmiriyat’, the ethno-national and social consciousness and cultural values of the Kashmiri people.

Taking a dig at sections of the national media, particularly TV channels, she said, “Some sections of the media have given a bad name to Kashmiris by calling them stone-pelters and militants. This is not the real picture....the real picture of Kashmir was portrayed by this shikarawala. I salute his bravery.”

Ms Mufti assured the family of the deceased that the state government would provide them all possible help, including financial assistance.

The chief minister ordered disbursement of `1 lakh ex-gratia in cash on the spot, paying rich tributes to Guroo and how his demise symbolised the real spirit of compassion and valiance of a Kashmiri who could sacrifice his own life to save another.

She said there were not many instances of such valiance where a person could go to the extent of forsaking his life to uphold Kashmir’s age-old and illustrious traditions of hospitality and harmony. “This is the real essence of Kashmiriyat,” she reiterated.