Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir — Suspected rebels killed a minimum of 26 vacationers on Tuesday within the picturesque vacationer resort of Pahalgam within the deadliest such assault in 1 / 4 century in Indian-administered Kashmir, elevating fears of an escalation in India-Pakistan tensions.
The assault in Kashmir’s southern district of Anantnag prompted anger throughout India. It got here amid the height vacationer season as lots of of 1000’s of vacationers are holidaying within the area, which has been racked by a three-decade armed riot.
Quickly after the assault, groups of police and paramilitary troops rushed to the spot to evacuate the wounded vacationers and launch a manhunt for the attackers. Indian Dwelling Minister Amit Shah, together with the nation’s prime safety brass, rushed to Kashmir, whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi lower quick a go to to Saudi Arabia to return to New Delhi, the place he held a gathering on Wednesday morning to craft India’s response.
The assault additionally unfolded as India is internet hosting US Vice President JD Vance, who arrived on Monday and is scheduled to go away on Thursday.
Right here’s what we all know concerning the assault, the victims, the attackers, the backdrop for the killings, what this implies for Kashmir and the area, and the way India would possibly react.
What occurred?
Pahalgam, which suggests “valley of shepherds” in Kashmiri, is among the most visited vacationer locations within the area, situated about 50km (31 miles) from the primary metropolis of Srinagar.
On Tuesday, witnesses instructed Al Jazeera that the realm was bustling with vacationers. At about 2:45pm, a gaggle of armed males in camouflage garments emerged from a close-by forest, an official mentioned, requesting anonymity to debate particulars that safety forces haven’t formally made public.
The attackers “opened indiscriminate hearth at Baisaran meadow, a scenic uphill space accessible solely by foot or pony rides,” the official mentioned. Many vacationers had been caught off guard because the sudden volley of bullets rang out.
Simran Chandani, a vacationer from Nagpur within the western Indian state of Maharashtra, mentioned that she was undecided she would survive the assault.
“We had been getting ready to go away after having tea and maggi (a preferred pre-packaged, ready-to-eat noodle snack)” when the assault began, she mentioned, describing Pahalgam as “mini-Switzerland”.
Then all of it modified. “I noticed a rush of individuals coming down, we thought the balloon had burst, individuals had been pushing one another, who instructed us an assault had occurred,” she recalled, including that principally males had been fired upon.
She joined the others in making an attempt to flee. “I used to be taking the identify of God and working,” Chandani mentioned.
How many individuals had been killed, and what will we find out about them?
A minimum of 26 individuals have been killed within the assault, and greater than a dozen others had been injured.
The vacationers killed had been nearly all civilians, and an Indian Navy officer from the northern state of Haryana on his honeymoon.
A 68-year-old former banker from Pandurangapuram within the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who was visiting the area along with his spouse, was additionally killed. The deceased additionally included a realtor from the southern state of Karnataka, an accountant from the japanese state of Odisha, a cement vendor from Uttar Pradesh within the north, and a Gulf-returnee from the southern state of Kerala.
One international nationwide, from Nepal, was amongst these killed.
Who claimed accountability for the assault?
An announcement issued within the identify of the Resistance Entrance (TRF), which is believed to be an offshoot of Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed accountability for the assault.
The assertion linked the assaults to the 1000’s of residency permits being handed over to Indian residents, allowing them to reside and work in Kashmir. Nonetheless, Al Jazeera couldn’t independently verify the assertion’s authenticity.
The Indian authorities had stripped Kashmir’s semi-autonomous standing in 2019, asserting extra federal management and splitting the previous state into two union territories. The transfer escalated political tensions within the area and paved the best way for the Indian authorities to subject residence permits to non-Kashmiris, which had beforehand been banned.
Indian officers instructed Al Jazeera on situation of anonymity that they suspected that 4 attackers took half within the killings – two of them from Pakistan, and two from Indian-administered Kashmir.
Have vacationers been attacked up to now?
Even amid Kashmir’s unrest, direct assaults on vacationers have been uncommon.
In 1995, six international vacationers had been kidnapped in Pahalgam by the armed group Al-Faran. One was killed, one other escaped, and the remaining 4 had been by no means discovered.
In 2000, 32 individuals, together with 21 Hindu pilgrims, had been killed at Nunwan in Pahalgam.
A 12 months later, 13 individuals, together with 11 pilgrims and two locals, had been killed close to Sheshnag lake in the identical space. In 2017, eight pilgrims had been killed in a capturing incident within the Anantnag district. In June final 12 months, eight Hindu pilgrims had been killed within the southern a part of Jammu’s Kathua when their bus was attacked and fell right into a gorge after the motive force misplaced management.
However Tuesday’s assault is prone to be the deadliest assault on vacationers a minimum of for the reason that 2000 assault in Nunwan.
General, Kashmir has not seen demise in an assault on this scale for the reason that bombing exterior Jammu and Kashmir’s state legislature in October 2001, during which 35 individuals had been killed.
The character and scale of the assault surprised survivors and native politicians.
“We went to Pahalgam, and I used to be sitting on the chair within the meadow once I heard three photographs, which created chaos,” mentioned Vinu Bai, a 65-year-old vacationer from the western state of Gujarat who was being handled with a bullet harm within the district hospital in Anantnag.“Everybody began working. The bullet within the chaos hit my arm.”
“We thought Kashmir was peaceable, we didn’t know this is able to occur.”
Iltija Mufti, a younger politician related to a neighborhood opposition group, mentioned Pahalgam was often patrolled closely by Indian safety forces. “For an assault like this to occur in a spot like Baisaran,” she mentioned, “is extraordinarily stunning”.
“There’s no place for such an assault to happen in our society.”
Indian law enforcement officials stand guard close to Pahalgam in southern Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened hearth at vacationers visiting Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 (Dar Yasin/AP Picture)
How has the Indian authorities responded?
India’s leaders had been assembly on Wednesday to arrange the nation’s response.
Modi, who was earlier supposed to fulfill Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a state dinner in Jeddah, lower quick his journey and rushed again to India.
“I strongly condemn the phobia assault in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Condolences to those that have misplaced their family members. I pray that the injured get well on the earliest. All doable help is being offered to these affected,” PM Modi mentioned in a tweet. “These behind this heinous act will likely be delivered to justice … they won’t be spared!”
Dwelling Minister Amit Shah additionally rushed to Srinagar and met prime safety officers within the area. Rahul Gandhi, the highest opposition chief from the Indian Nationwide Congress, slammed the federal government, urging it to maneuver past the “hole claims” of normalcy in Kashmir for the reason that revocation of the particular standing in 2019.
“The entire nation is united in opposition to terrorism,” Gandhi mentioned. “As an alternative of creating hole claims of the state of affairs being regular in Jammu and Kashmir, the federal government ought to now take accountability and take concrete steps in order that such barbaric incidents don’t occur sooner or later and harmless Indians don’t lose their lives like this.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Pakistani Military Chief Asim Munir (AP Picture)
Will India retaliate in opposition to Pakistan?
Consultants mentioned that the federal government’s response may embody some type of retaliation in opposition to Pakistan for the brutal assault.
“That is an act of conflict. That’s how we’re seeing it. It has come simply days after that speech by Pakistan’s military chief,” Tara Kartha, director on the Centre for Land Warfare Research (CLAWS), a New Delhi-based assume tank. Kartha, who was previously an official at India’s Nationwide Safety Council Secretariat, was referring to final week’s deal with by Pakistani Chief of Military Workers Asim Munir, the place he reiterated his help for the two-nation idea that led to India’s partition in 1947, and affirmed “distinction from Hindus”.
Kartha mentioned that the actions in Pahalgam match the tone of Munir’s “invective-loaded” deal with on April 16. “Provided that Pakistan condemns the assault within the strongest phrases and guarantees motion in opposition to terrorists within the subsequent 48 hours will a critical disaster be averted.”
Pakistan responded within the early hours of Wednesday.
“We’re involved on the lack of vacationers’ lives in an assault in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. We lengthen our condolences to the close to ones of the deceased and need the injured a speedy restoration,” the Pakistani Ministry of International Affairs mentioned in an announcement. India and Pakistan each declare all of Kashmir, and every controls part of it.
Whereas that assertion is unlikely to calm passions in India, the place the federal government will face stress to behave powerful in opposition to Pakistan, some specialists cautioned in opposition to an impulsive response.
India’s relative stability in contrast with its “extremely risky neighbour” ought to inform its response, mentioned Saba Naqvi, a veteran political commentator based mostly in New Delhi.
“As for India, most individuals right here assume the BJP regime will merely drop bombs there and every little thing will likely be avenged,” she mentioned, referring to Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP). “However it’s not so simple as that.”
Indian vacationers stroll on a snow-covered street in Gulmarg, northwest of Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, on Monday, January 11, 2021 (Dar Yasin/AP Picture)
What does the assault imply for Kashmir?
Kashmiri politicians and civil society have condemned the assault, arguing that such actions harm residents greater than anybody else.
“It is a terrorist act. I don’t assume I can outline it as anything. Whoever has finished it solely desires to hurt Kashmiris, our financial system, and a way of political stability that had returned to put up to now couple of months,” Waheed ur Rehman Para, a Kashmiri legislator from the opposition Individuals’s Democratic Social gathering (PDP), instructed Al Jazeera.
Tourism is a crucial element of the native financial system, contributing practically 7 % to its gross home product (GDP). A rush of tourists to Kashmir additionally serves the political messaging of Modi’s BJP that it has succeeded in bringing peace and calm to the area.
But, even earlier than the Pahalgam assault, issues had been removed from regular within the area. Since 2019, the Indian authorities has cracked down on political activists and civilians alike, arresting 1000’s of individuals underneath draconian legal guidelines that permit it to maintain them underneath detention for prolonged intervals with no trial.
Final 12 months in October, Kashmir voted to decide on its first elected head after practically a decade.
Omar Abdullah, a preferred provincial politician who campaigned on the promise of reinstating the misplaced autonomy, clinched a landslide victory in these polls. However his rule has been severely restricted by the brand new legal guidelines of the union territory, with many powers now held by a federally handpicked lieutenant governor.
Nonetheless, the Pahalgam assault has introduced many hoteliers and tour operators to the defence of vacationers and in opposition to these behind the killings.
“This isn’t acceptable at any value. What’s most troublesome, greater than anything, for us at this hour is the heavy human loss this has imposed. Tourism isn’t the precedence for the time being,” mentioned Abdul Wahid Malik, a hotelier based mostly in Pahalgam, and former president of the native hoteliers’ guild.
A landslide in Ramban village, a gateway connecting the mountainous Kashmir area with the plains of Jammu, has disrupted visitors out and in of the landlocked valley, pushing airfares increased and making it troublesome for fear-stricken vacationers to go away the area, following Tuesday’s assault.
After studying {that a} vacationer household was caught, Malik organized 4 rooms for them at his resort. “We’re duty-bound to make sure their security,” he mentioned. “The assault has devastated us.”
Tourism and enterprise operators in Kashmir referred to as for a shutdown on Wednesday. Different residents additionally mentioned they had been shocked by the incident.
“Kashmir is understood for being heat and hospitable,” mentioned Nadiya Farooq, 31, a resident of Srinagar.
“We’re devastated by the lack of lives. We wish peace and an finish to bloodshed. We’re grieving.”
