By AIJAZ HUSSAIN
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Gunmen shot lifeless no less than 20 vacationers at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police stated Tuesday, in what seemed to be a significant shift within the regional battle wherein vacationers have largely been spared.
Police described the incident as a “terror assault” and blamed militants preventing towards Indian rule. “This assault is way bigger than something we’ve seen directed at civilians lately,” Omar Abdullah, the area’s prime elected official, wrote on social media.
Two senior law enforcement officials stated no less than 4 gunmen, whom they described as militants, fired at dozens of vacationers from shut vary. The officers stated no less than three dozen others have been injured, many in severe situation.
A lot of the vacationers killed have been Indian, the officers stated, talking on situation of anonymity consistent with departmental coverage. Officers collected no less than 20 our bodies in Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed area’s resort city of Pahalgam.
There was no instant declare of duty. Police and troopers have been looking for the attackers.
Indian vacationers rests on a bench as policemen guard close to a clock tower at metropolis centre in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Picture/Mukhtar Khan)
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Indian vacationers rests on a bench as policemen guard close to a clock tower at metropolis centre in Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Picture/Mukhtar Khan)
Increase
“We’ll come down closely on the perpetrators with the harshest penalties,” India’s residence minister, Amit Shah, wrote on social media. He arrived in Srinagar, the primary metropolis in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and convened a gathering with prime safety officers. He stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on an official go to in Saudi Arabia, has been briefed.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key resistance politician and Kashmir’s prime non secular cleric, condemned what he described as a “cowardly assault on vacationers,” writing on social media that “such violence is unacceptable and towards the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes guests with love and heat.”
The gunfire coincided with the go to to India of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who known as it a “devastating terrorist assault.” He added on social media: “Over the previous few days, now we have been overcome with the fantastic thing about this nation and its folks. Our ideas and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific assault.”
U.S. President Donald Trump on social media famous “deeply disturbing information out of Kashmir. America stands robust with India towards terrorism.”
The meadow in Pahalgam is a well-liked vacation spot, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It’s visited by lots of of vacationers each day as Kashmir, recognized for Himalayan foothills and exquisitely adorned houseboats, has turn out to be a significant home vacationer vacation spot.
It has drawn hundreds of thousands of holiday makers who take pleasure in an odd peace saved by ubiquitous safety checkpoints, armored automobiles and patrolling troopers.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan every administer a part of Kashmir, however each declare the territory in its entirety.
Kashmir has seen a spate of focused killings of Hindus, together with immigrant employees from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the area’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Tensions have been simmering as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations. However regardless of vacationers flocking to Kashmir in large numbers, they haven’t been focused.
Militants within the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been preventing New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris help the rebels’ aim of uniting the territory, both below Pakistani rule or as an unbiased nation.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the cost, and plenty of Kashmiris take into account it a legit freedom wrestle. Tens of hundreds of civilians, rebels and authorities forces have been killed within the battle.
Violence has ebbed in latest occasions within the Kashmir Valley, the guts of anti-India insurrection. Preventing between authorities forces and rebels has largely shifted to distant areas of Jammu area together with Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, the place Indian troops have confronted lethal assaults.
Related Press writers Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Michelle Worth in Washington contributed to this report.
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