New Delhi – At least 20 tourists were killed and many others injured on Tuesday when alleged activists opened fire on Cashmere civilians under Indian control, according to information on the Indian and international media. Many points of sale, including the French AFP news agency, have cited anonymous security officials who have passed the number of deaths up to 24 years old, but there was no immediate confirmation of the losses of the authorities.
Two senior police officers, who also spoke under the guise of anonymity, told the Associated Press that 20 bodies had been recovered after several armed men had shot dozens of tourists at close range on Tuesday. The police said that at least three dozen others had been injured, with a lot in serious condition.
The attack took place in the Southern Kashmir Pahalgam region, a picturesque destination dotted with meadows and glaciers which attract hundreds of thousands of Indian and foreign tourists each summer. This tourism traffic has increased in the past year, while militant violence in the larger cashmere region, disputed between India and neighboring Pakistan, has declined.
People injured in the Tuesday attack were taken in neighboring hospitals. Police, army and paramilitary forces have launched a research operation to find attack officials.
Ani / Reuters
“Our reports indicate that two to three activists have appeared and opened a blind fire to tourists”, ” The Indian Express The newspaper quoted a superior police officer saying, without naming it.
“The number of deaths is still being verified, so I do not want to go into these details. They will be officially transmitted as the situation becomes clearer. No need to say that this attack is much greater than anything we have seen against civilians in recent years,” wrote Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Cashmere, in a position on social networks.
Abdullah called on the attack “shocking beyond belief” and said that no word of condemnation could be sufficient to punish those behind the shooting.
Ani / Reuters
The attack came while the American vice-president JD Vance, as well as his wife Usha and their children, paid a Largely personal visit to India. Vance met earlier in the week with the head of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Usha Vance is a practicing Hindu whose parents are from India.
It was the worst attack in the region affected by the conflict in almost a year, and it occurred at a time when tourism in cashmere was recovered. THE Last major attack Arrived in June 2024, when nine people were killed and 33 injured while activists attacked a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims.
Eight pilgrims were killed and 19 injured in a similar attack in the region in 2017, when activists attacked a bus bringing them back from the famous temple of the Amarnath cave in southern cashmere.
The cashmere is claimed entirely by India and Pakistan, but each nation has checked its own part of the mountainous region for decades.
The picturesque Himalayan region has been regularly affected by militant violence since an armed anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989. The simmering conflict cost tens of thousands of lives over three decades.
“I firmly condemn the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu-et-Cachemire. said In an article on social networks. “People behind this odious act will be brought to justice … They will not be spared!” Their diabolical agenda will never succeed. Our determination to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will become even stronger. ”
Indian Minister of India, Amit Shah, said that he would visit the region to examine the security measures.
“I am anxious by the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu-et-Cachemire. My thoughts go to the members of the deceased family,” said Shah in an article on social networks, adding: “Those involved in this act of terror to the earth will not be spared, and we will come back to the authors with the most difficult consequences.”