Jawan actor Aaliyah Qureishi was caught in Thailand mall shooting, narrates scary experience: ‘Grateful I got out of it alive’

 

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A post shared by Jhalli / Aaliyah Qureishi (@jhalliverse)

Read Aaliyah’s note here:

Okay this is hard to write. But I don’t want my Instagram to be a place where I only talk about shiny happy things, so as horrible as it is, here goes.

As some of you have asked, I was in Thailand during the Siam Paragon shooting. In fact, me and my 2 friends were in the mall when it happened. We were coming up the escalator when we saw mass hysteria and someone yelled out “shooter”. As we ran back down we heard 3 gun shots. It was a terrifying experience.

I feel grateful that my friends and I got out of it alive. And I feel horrible that 2 innocent people didn’t. I wish real life was like action films, where you could fearlessly jump into any cruel fight and save everyone. But when it happens, the only thought in your mind is to get out of there alive.

To think that when the day began, we were relaxed and playing with dogs, and by the end of the day we were running away from a mall shooting, soaked in rain, desperately trying to find a tuk tuk to take us home, is insane. Life is crazy and unexpected.

I don’t really know how to process all the mixed emotions I have about the incident, but I just kept thinking, we spent 10 minutes at the currency exchange before going up that escalator. It took longer than expected. What if we had not had problems, and spent only 5 minutes instead? Where would we have been at the time of the shooting? In the store, closer to him? I don’t know, but it makes me think that there’s some divine timing, and like the Burnt Toast Theory, something seemingly irritating could be a blessing in disguise, maybe even save your life. There are so many things we don’t know.

My heart goes out to all the friends and families of the two victims, and the five injured. I hope we can heal as a society and not have to witness these horrible outbursts of rage by disturbed people.

Stay safe everyone. Lots of love and light to you all.

Atlee-directed Jawan has become the biggest hit of this year. While the actioner had Shah Rukh Khan play double roles, it also gave a platform to three new faces — Aaliyah Qureishi, Lehar Khan, and Sanjeeta Bhattacharya. They played members of Azad’s girl gang along with Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, and Girija Oak. The film also starred Deepika Padukone, Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupati.