At least 20 people were feared after alleged militants had opened the fire on Tuesday on the tourists in India’s Jammu and Kashmir.
The attack occurred in Pahalgam, a popular travel destination in the picturesque, mountainous region, in which mass tourism, especially in the summer months, recorded a revival because the militant has decreased Islamist violence in recent years.
A security source put the number of fatalities on 20; The second set it to 24 and the third with 26. All three languages on the condition of anonymity because they were not justified to speak to the media.
“Shooting occurred in front of us,” said a witness to the broadcaster India today without giving his name. “We thought someone would skip over, but when we heard other people (screaming), we quickly got out …”
“We didn’t stop for four kilometers … I tremble,” said another witness today.
The attack occurred in an off-the-road meadow and two or three militants, the newspaper of the Indian Express reported on an unidentified leading police officer.
“The number of fatalities is still found, so I don’t want to go into these details,” said Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Omar Abdullah in a contribution to X, formerly Twitter. “To mention that this attack is much larger than anything we have directed against civilians in recent years.”
The victims’ nationalities were not immediately known.
A little-known militant group called Kashmir Resistance took responsibility for the attack in a social media message. In the region, more than 85,000 “outsiders” were settled, which populated a “demographic change”.
“As a result, violence is aimed at those who try to settle down illegally,” it said.
Reuters could not check the source of the message independently.
Special status was revoked 6 years ago
The regional government of Jammu and Kashmir, where Pahangam is located, informed its legislator this month that almost 84,000 non-restaurants from India were given in the territory rights in the territories in the past two years.
“Those behind this hideous act will be put to court … they will not be spared!” The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X.
The Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah said that he was after Kashmir to hold a security meeting.
In Washington, the White House said that US President Donald Trump was informed about what a spokesman for the White House described as a “brutal terrorist attack”.
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs later said that Trump called modes and “expressed full support for India to put the perpetrators in court of this hideous attack”.
The Himalaya region, which has been fully claimed since an anti-Indian uprising in 1989, has fully ruled on militant violence.
Tens of thousands of people were killed, although violence has been rejuvenated in recent years.
India revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and divided the state into two areas managed by the federal government – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The move also enabled local authorities to give outsiders to own mobile homes and enable them to get jobs and to buy land in the territory. This led to a deterioration in relationships with Pakistan, which also claims the region.
The dispute has stimulated bitter hostility and military conflicts between the nuclear.
Attacks on tourists in Kashmir have become rare. The last fatal incident occurred in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after a militant attack brought a bus with Hindu pilgrims into a deep gorge.
According to the Indian security authorities, some important militant attacks during the highlight of the uprising fell together with visits of top -class foreign officials to draw worldwide attention to Kashmir.
