SRINAGAR – Security has been beefed up across Indian-controlled Kashmir a day after an attack killed at least 26 people, most of them tourists, as Indian forces launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of one of the deadliest attacks in the restive Himalayan region.
As investigators began probing the attack, many shops and businesses in Kashmir closed to protest the killings following a call from the region’s religious and political parties.
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Tens of thousands of armed police and soldiers fanned out across the region and erected additional checkpoints. They searched cars and in some areas summoned former militants to police stations for questioning, reports said.
Police called the incident a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule.
“Kashmir Resistance,” a previously unknown militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack in two messages on social media. The group said authorities had settled over 85,000 “outsiders” in the region and claimed that those targeted on Tuesday were not “ordinary tourists” but “were linked to and affiliated with Indian security agencies.”
The group’s messages could not be independently verified.
Earlier this month, the local government told its legislature that 83,742 non-local Indians were granted domicile rights in Kashmir in the last two years.
Pakistan offers condolences and expresses concern
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi early Wednesday.
Some Indian media and some commentators immediately blamed Islamabad for directing such attacks, while Pakistan extended condolences to the victims’ families.
“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives," Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement while wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
Officials said 24 of the people killed were Indian tourists, one was from Nepal and one was a local tourist guide. At least 17 others were injured.
Separately, soldiers killed two suspected militants in a gunfight after they tried to cross into Indian side from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in northwestern Baramulla district along the heavily militarized Line of Control dividing the region, the Indian army said in a statement on Wednesday. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
Kashmir has seen tourism boom despite spate of attacks
Kashmir has seen a spate of deadly attacks on Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, since New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and the region has drawn millions of visitors to its Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats. Officials have claimed that as a sign of normalcy returning, despite the presence of ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. Until Tuesday, tourists were not targeted.
Following the attack, panicked tourists started to leave Kashmir.
Monojit Debnath, from the Indian city of Kolkata, said Kashmir was undoubtedly beautiful but his family did not feel secure anymore.
“We are tourists, and we should think about what safety we have here for us,” Debnath told the Press Trust of India news agency as he was leaving Srinagar, the region’s main city, with his family.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the exodus of our guests from the valley after yesterday’s tragic terror attack,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media. “But at the same time we totally understand why people would want to leave.”
Indian home minister visits
On Wednesday, India’s powerful home minister Amit Shah attended a ceremony at a police control room in Srinagar, where the slain tourists were paid floral tributes. He also met families of several victims.
Shah vowed to “come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences.”
Later, Shah visited the site of the killing at Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the resort town of Pahalgam.
The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.
Meanwhile, security officials intensified operations to search for the attackers and the Indian army said in a statement that its efforts “focused on bringing the attackers to justice.”
The military used helicopters to search the forested mountains for signs of the attackers.
Kashmir has been divided for decades
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India describes militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
India has used heavy-handed tactics to maintain its control over the region, including giving the armed forces widespread powers to arrest, torture and summarily execute suspects, human rights groups say.
In March 2000, at least 35 civilians were shot and killed in a southern village in Kashmir shortly before a visit to India by then-President Bill Clinton.
In 2019, months before New Delhi revoked the region's autonomy, a car bomb attack by militants in southern Pulwama district killed at least 40 paramilitary soldiers and wounded dozens more, bringing India and Pakistan close to war.
Violence has ebbed in recent times in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion. Fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region, including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks.
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Associated Press journalist Munir Ahmed, in Islamabad, contributed to this report.