PAHALGAM, India – Men were methodically targeted on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir when gunmen opened fire on tourists, an eyewitness told AFP, in the worst attack on civilians in years.
At least 24 people were killed in the attack that happened in the summer retreat of Pahalgam, which lies about 90km by road from the key city of Srinagar, a senior police official told AFP.
“I cannot say how many, but the militants came out of the forest near an open small meadow and started firing,” an eyewitness, who provides ponies for tourists, told AFP.
The witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity as authorities barred them from speaking, said the gunmen “very clearly spared women and kept shooting at men”.
“Sometimes single shot and sometimes many bullets” they said. “It was like a storm.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi decried the “heinous act”, pledging the attackers “will be brought to justice”.
A woman named Pallavi, from India’s southern Karnataka state, said the attack “felt like a bad dream” as her husband was killed in front of her and their son.
They were attacked by “three to four people,” India Today quoted her as saying.
“I told them – kill me too… One of them said, ‘I won’t kill you. Go tell this to Modi’.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989.
They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.
The killings comes a day after Mr Modi met US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who is on a four-day tour of India.
An Indian soldier standing guard near Pahalgam, south of Srinagar, on April 22, following the attack.PHOTO: AFP
One security source said that foreign tourists were among those shot, but there was no official confirmation.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory, but fighting decreased since Mr Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019.
In recent years, the authorities have heavily promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing during the winter months, and to escape the sweltering heat during the summer elsewhere in India.
A woman who was injured in the suspected militant attack near scenic Pahalgam on April 22, receives treatment at a hospital in south Kashmir’s Anantnag.PHOTO: REUTERS
Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, according to official figures, the majority domestic visitors.
The worst attack in recent years took place in Pulwama in February 2019, when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.
The deadliest recent attack on civilians was in March 2000, when 36 people, all Indian civilians, were killed.
India regularly blames Pakistan for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination. AFP
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