Police say a number of vacationers endure gunshot wounds in assault which comes throughout heavy navy crackdown in area.
Armed males opened fireplace on a bunch of vacationers in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing at the very least 20 folks, in response to Indian police, in one of many deadliest assaults there in latest instances.
Police stated a number of vacationers obtained gunshot wounds within the “terror assault” on Tuesday whereas they had been visiting Baisaran meadow, some 5km (3 miles) from the disputed area’s resort city of Pahalgam.
“This assault is far bigger than something we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent times,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the area’s prime elected official, wrote on social media.
Indian police informed The Related Press information company that at the very least 20 folks had been killed and that no group had but claimed duty for the assault, which police blamed on armed teams preventing towards Indian rule. Safety forces launched a hunt for the attackers whereas the wounded had been rushed to hospitals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who’s on an official go to in Saudi Arabia, decried the “heinous act” in Pahalgam, pledging the attackers “will likely be dropped at justice”.
I strongly condemn the fear 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 attainable help is being supplied to these affected.
These behind this heinous act will likely be introduced…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 22, 2025
India’s inside minister, Amit Shah, is heading to Srinagar, the principle metropolis in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the place he stated he would overview the state of affairs.
“We’ll come down closely on the perpetrators with the harshest penalties,” Shah wrote in a publish on the X social media platform.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist chief in Kashmir, condemned what he described as a “cowardly assault on vacationers” in a publish on X. “Such violence is unacceptable and towards the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes guests with love and heat. Condemn it strongly.”
Kashmir has been beneath an intensified military crackdown since its semi-autonomous status was revoked by the Indian authorities about six years in the past.
The assault follows violence earlier this month between safety forces and suspected rebels, which resulted in six deaths, together with 4 officers.
Assaults concentrating on vacationers in Kashmir have been uncommon in recent times, the final one relationship again to June, when fighters attacked a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims, plunging it right into a deep gorge and killing at the very least 9 folks.
Between India and Pakistan
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan every administer a part of Kashmir, however each declare the territory in its entirety.
Many within the Muslim-majority, Indian-administered Kashmir help the rebels’ aim of uniting the territory with Pakistan or creating an impartial nation.
India insists the Kashmir rebellion is Pakistan-sponsored. Pakistan denies the cost, and plenty of Kashmiris take into account it a authentic freedom wrestle.
The Indian authorities, led by the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), revoked Kashmir’s particular standing in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The identical yr, a report by the Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir and known as for a fee of inquiry into the allegations.
