shah Aijaz CNI

When a cloudburst struck the Paddar region of Kishtwar on August 14, triggering massive landslides along the route of the Mata Machail Yatra, chaos and fear gripped the thousands of pilgrims caught in its wake.Amid the devastation, one man stood out for his extraordinary courage, Arif Rashid, a 108 ambulance driver from Kijiyai village, who single-handedly saved the lives of more than 50 people.

Adil had been on duty, stationed along the yatra route, when the disaster struck at around 12:30 in the afternoon. “A loud bang came from the mountain, and within moments the slope came crashing down, carrying trees, boulders, and mud,” he recalled while speaking to The Kashmiriyat.

I barely escaped being buried, but then I saw an old woman crying for help. Only her face and arms were visible through the mud. I couldn’t leave her there,” he said.

That rescue was only the beginning. With bare hands and relentless energy, Arif pulled survivors out of the rubble. Some he carried alone on his shoulders, others with the help of panicked bystanders, before loading them into his ambulance.

He then drove nearly five kilometres through broken, muddy tracks to ferry the injured to the nearest point where medical teams and reinforcements were waiting.

Local residents and survivors describe him as a “one-man rescue team.” “Every time he saved someone, he didn’t rest,” said a villager. “He kept going back into the mud, lifting people on his shoulders, carrying them like they were his own family.”

By midnight, more than 12 hours after the disaster, Arif had still not eaten a single meal. For three days he remained on site, sleeping on grass and refusing to leave until every survivor had been evacuated. On August 17, he finally drove out to refill his ambulance after exhausting all supplies.

Officials have confirmed that his efforts saved dozens of lives. “Without his timely intervention, the toll could have been much higher,” a disaster management official said.

For the pilgrims who made it home alive, Arif Rashid is now more than just an ambulance driver, he is the hero of Machail Yatra, a man who chose courage over fear when the mountains came crashing down.