At least 27 people were killed after suspected militants opened fire on tourists in India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory yesterday, three security sources said, the worst attack on civilians in the troubled Himalayan region for years.
The attack occurred in Pahalgam, a popular destination in the scenic, mountainous region where mass tourism, especially during the summer, has resurged as militant violence has eased in recent years.
One security source put the death toll at 20; the second put it at 24 and the third at 27. All three spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
“The firing happened in front of us,” one witness told broadcaster India Today, without giving his name. “We thought someone was setting off firecrackers, but when we heard other people (screaming), we quickly got out of there ... saved our lives and ran.”
“For four kilometers, we did not stop ... I am shaking,” another witness told India Today.
The attack occurred in an off-the-road meadow and two or three militants were involved, the Indian Express newspaper reported, citing an unidentified senior police officer.
“The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a post on X. “Needless to say, this attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”
The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known.
A little-known militant group, the ‘Kashmir Resistance’, claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that more than 85,000 ‘outsiders’ had been settled in the region, spurring a ‘demographic change’.
“Consequently, violence will be directed toward those attempting to settle illegally,” it said.
Reuters could not independently verify the source of the message.
The regional government of Jammu and Kashmir, where Pahalgam is located, told its legislature this month that nearly 84,000 non-locals, from within India, had been given domicile rights in the territory in the last two years.
“Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice ... They will not be spared!” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. “Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger.”
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said he was rushing to Kashmir to hold a security meeting.
In Washington, the White House said US President Donald Trump had been briefed on what a White House spokesperson described as a ‘brutal terrorist attack’.
India’s foreign ministry subsequently said Trump called Modi and “expressed full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack.”
Militant violence has afflicted the Himalayan region, claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, since an anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.
India revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The move allowed local authorities to issue domicile rights to outsiders, allowing them to get jobs and buy land in the territory.
Attacks targeting tourists in Kashmir have become rare. The last deadly incident took place in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after a militant attack caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge.
Some major militant attacks during the height of the insurgency coincided with visits from high-profile foreign officials to India, in likely attempts to draw global attention to Kashmir, Indian security agencies have said.
- Major militant attacks in India’s restive Kashmir region
At least 27 people were feared dead after suspected militants opened fire on them in India’s Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday, with officials saying it was one of the deadliest such attacks in recent times.
Here is a look at major attacks over the years in India’s only Muslim-majority region, where Islamist militants have fought security forces for decades.
NOVEMBER 2024
At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at security personnel in a crowded flea market in the main city of Srinagar.
OCTOBER 2024
Six migrant workers and a doctor were shot dead by militants who opened fire near a tunnel construction site. The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility.
JUNE 2024
At least nine people died and 33 were injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a deep gorge after a suspected militant attack.
MAY 2024
Suspected militants opened fire on a tourist couple from the northwestern city of Jaipur, injuring them both.
FEBRUARY 2019
At least 44 security personnel were killed after a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir. Militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility.
JULY 2017
At least seven Hindu pilgrims, on their way back from the revered Amarnath shrine deep in the Himalayas, died when their bus got caught in crossfire after two militant attacks on police in the area.
SEPTEMBER 2016
At least 17 soldiers were killed as separatists armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades stormed an army base in Uri near the disputed border with Pakistan.
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