At least 20 folks have been feared killed after gunmen opened hearth on vacationers within the Indian-administered Kashmir area on Tuesday, media experiences stated, citing safety sources, in what’s seen because the worst assault on civilians within the troubled Himalayan area for years.
One safety supply put the loss of life toll at 20, whereas the second put it at 24 and the third at 26. All three spoke on the situation of anonymity as they weren’t approved to talk to the media, a Reuters report stated.
A senior police officer informed Agence France-Presse (AFP) that at the very least 24 folks misplaced their lives.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi decried the “heinous act” in the summertime retreat of Pahalgam, pledging that the attackers “will be brought to justice.”
A tour information informed AFP he reached the scene after listening to gunfire and transported among the wounded away on horseback.
“I saw a few men lying on the ground looking like they were dead,” stated Waheed, who gave just one identify.
The assault focused vacationers in Pahalgam, which lies about 90 kilometres (55 miles) by highway from the important thing metropolis of Srinagar.
The senior police officer within the area, talking on situation of anonymity, described a bloodbath wherein at the very least 24 folks had been killed.
No group has to this point claimed duty for the assault.
The Muslim-majority area has been affected by disaster for many years amid the dispute between India and Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir had been the one Muslim-majority state in primarily Hindu India.
They are in search of independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller a part of the Kashmir area and, like India, claims it in full.
“The firing happened in front of us,” one witness informed broadcaster India Today, with out giving his identify. “We thought someone was setting off firecrackers, but when we heard other people (screaming), we quickly got out of there…, saved our lives and ran.”
The killings come a day after Modi met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who’s on a four-day tour of India.
“The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stated in a submit on X.
“Needless to say, this attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”
The nationalities of the victims weren’t instantly recognized.
India’s inside minister, Amit Shah stated he was flying to the location of the assault.
“Those involved in this dastardly act of terror will not be spared, and we will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Shah stated in an announcement.
Popular vacationer vacation spot
Medics at a hospital in Anantnag stated that they had obtained among the wounded, together with at the very least two with gunshot wounds, one with a bullet damage to the neck.
Rahul Gandhi, chief of India’s foremost opposition Congress occasion, known as the killings “heartbreaking.”
“The whole country is united against terrorism,” he stated in an announcement, urging the federal authorities to “take accountability.”
India has an estimated 500,000 troopers completely deployed within the territory, however preventing has decreased since Modi’s authorities revoked Kashmir’s restricted autonomy in 2019.
“Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger,” Modi stated in an announcement following the assault.
In latest years, the authorities have closely promoted the mountainous area as a vacation vacation spot, each for snowboarding throughout the winter months and to flee the sweltering warmth throughout the summer time elsewhere in India.
Around 3.5 million vacationers visited Kashmir in 2024, in response to official figures, the bulk home guests.
In 2023, India hosted a G-20 tourism assembly in Srinagar underneath tight safety in a bid to point out that what officers name “normalcy and peace” have been returning after an enormous crackdown.
A string of resorts is being developed, together with some near the closely militarized de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
India commonly blames Pakistan for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it solely helps Kashmir’s battle for self-determination.
The worst assault lately happened in Pulwama in February 2019, when insurgents rammed a automobile filled with explosives right into a police convoy, killing 40 and wounding at the very least 35 others.
The deadliest latest assault on civilians was in March 2000, when 36 folks, all Indian civilians, have been killed.
Source: www.dailysabah.com