Srinagar, India-the gunmen fired and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a cashmere resort controlled by the Indians, police said in what seemed to be an important change in a regional conflict in which tourists have greatly saved themselves.
Police said it was a “terrorist attack” and blamed the militants fighting the Indian government. “This attack is much larger than anything we have seen directed to civilians in recent years,” wrote Omar Abdullah, the senior elected official of the region, on social networks.
Two senior police officers said that at least four armed men, whom they described as militants, fired dozens of tourists from short distance. The officers said that at least three dozen people were injured, many of them reported that they were in serious condition.
The majority of dead tourists were Indians, the officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to departmental policy. The authorities collected at least 24 bodies in Baisaran Meadow, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the tourist city of the disputed region, Pahalgam. Two others died while they were taken to receive medical treatment.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police and soldiers were looking for attackers.
“We are going to go down a lot about the perpetrators with the toughest consequences,” wrote Interior Minister of India, Amit Shah, on social networks. He arrived in Srinagar, the main city controlled by the Indians, and summoned a meeting with senior security officials.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, was shortening his two -day visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to New Delhi at dawn on Wednesday, the press agency of Press Trust of India reported.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key resistance politician and the main religious clergy of Kashmira, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack against tourists”, writing on social networks that “such violence is unacceptable and against the spirit of Kashmir that welcomes visitors with love and warm.”
The shot coincided with the visit to the India of the United States vice president, JD Vance, who described him as a “devastating terrorist attack.” He added to social networks: “In recent days, we have surpassed the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them while crying this horrible attack.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, on social networks, said “deeply disturbing news of Kashmir. The United States is firm with India against terrorism.” Other world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, condemned the attack.
“The United States meets India,” said the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in X.
The rivals with nuclear weapons India and Pakistan manage a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory as a whole.
Kashmira has seen a series of specific hindu murders, including immigrant workers of the Indian states, after New Delhi ended the semi -autonomy of the region in 2019 and drastically stopped dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Tensions have been boiling as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations. But despite the tourists who come to Kashmir in large quantities for their foothills of the Himalayas and the exquisitely decorated floating houses, they have not been attacked.
The region has attracted millions of visitors who enjoy a strange peace maintained by the omnipresent security control points, armored vehicles and patrol soldiers. Nueva Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and claimed it as a sign of normality that returns.
The Prado in Pahalgam is a popular destination, surrounded by snowy mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.
The leader of the Indian opposition Rahul Gandhi, while condemning the attack, said that the Modi government should assume responsibility instead of making “hollow claims about the situation normal” in the region.
The militants in the portion of Kashmira controlled by India have been fighting against the New Delhi government since 1989. Many Muslim puppys support the objective of the rebels to unite the territory, either under the Pakistani government or as an independent country.
India insists that Kashmir militancy is terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. Pakistan denies the position, and many Cunemiris consider him a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
In March 2000, at least 35 civilians were shot dead in a southern village in Kashmir, while the then US president Bill Clinton was visiting India. It was the most fatal attack in the region in the last two decades.
Violence has decreased in recent times in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of the anti-india rebellion. The fight between governmental forces and rebels has greatly changed remote areas of the Jammu region, including Rajouri, Ponch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced mortal attacks.
