SRINAGAR: Over two dozen tourists were killed and injured in a deadly terror attack at Baisaran, a hilltop green meadow about 5 km from Kashmir Valley’s premier tourist resort Pahalgam, on Tuesday. Condemning the terror attack on tourists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that those behind the heinous act will be brought to justice. The Prime Minister also spoke to Union home minister Amit Shah following the attack and asked him to take all suitable steps to deal with the situation.Even as the administration counted dead bodies and injured, one report said that 27 people have been killed and several others injured in the worst terrorist attack of the past several years in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign burst into major violence in 1989-90. Among the dead are two locals and three foreigners — one reportedly from Italy, another from Israel and a Nepali, though the Israeli embassy in New Delhi said it has no information of any of its citizens being among the victims. The remaining victims are mainly domestic tourists, the police and hospital sources said.Another report, yet to be confirmed by the authorities, puts the death toll at 28, including 26 tourists (25 men and one woman) and two local Kashmiris.Pahalgam, about 90 km southeast of J&K capital Srinagar, is a basecamp of the annual Amarnath yatra, which is scheduled to begin on July 3 simultaneously from both traditional Pahalgam and shorter Baltal routes. The terror attack has taken place at a time when the scenic Kashmir Valley is witnessing a surge in tourist arrivals from across the country and abroad.Among the victims were Navy Lt Vinay Narwal and his wife Himanshi, Shalinder Kalpiya from Gujarat and businessman Manjunath Rao, a resident of Shivamogga district of Karnataka.An Intelligence Bureau officer posted in Hyderabad too was killed during the attack.Several others injured in the attack succumbed on the way to hospital.The police sources and witnesses said that the holidaymakers –mostly from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha — were enjoying horse-riding or engaged in other recreational activities in the meadow situated at a height of 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) and dotted with dense pine forests and surrounded by snowcapped mountains when a group of terrorists targeted them with automatic firearms. After committing the terror act, the gunmen fled back into the woods, the witnesses told the police.A purported video of the attack site emerged showing several people bleeding and lying motionless on the ground while women tourists were wailing and looking for their near and dear ones.Some of the witnesses said that the assailants were dressed in military fatigues and that they entered the meadow from the surrounding woods and opened fire without warning.The authorities pressed a chopper into service for the evacuation of the injured persons, the officials said, adding some of the injured were brought down from the meadows by local people on their ponies.J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a post on X, said that the death toll is still being ascertained. He, however, also said, “Needless to say, this attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the police officials suspect that either Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) or one of their shadow groups could be involved. However, a section of local media late on Tuesday reported that The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of proscribed LeT, claimed responsibility.These reports quoting unnamed officials also said that possibly the group of terrorists involved in the attack could have crossed over from Kishtwar in Jammu and reached Baisaran through Kokernag in south Kashmir.The officials said that columns of the Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including the CRPF, joined J&K’s police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) to launch a hunt for the attackers while the wounded were rushed to hospitals.The Union home minister, who reached Srinagar from New Delhi late Tuesday evening to hold an emergency security review meeting with the top-ranking security and civil administration officials at Raj Bhavan and oversee the response to the terror attack, said that he had been directed by the Prime Minister to ensure swift and decisive action to address the incident.Shah is likely to visit Pahalgam on Wednesday morning, the official sources said.Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. M.V. Suchendra Kumar, who was in New Delhi for a military conference, is rushing to Srinagar to oversee the security forces’ operation against the terrorists involved in the attack, the defence sources here said, adding that he will be briefed by senior local commanders at the headquarters of the Army 15 Corps, also called Chinar Corps, at Srinagar’s Badami Bagh Cantonment before leaving for Pahalgam early Wednesday morning.The bloody incident has shaken the nation,...
SRINAGAR: Over two dozen tourists were killed and injured in a deadly terror attack at Baisaran, a hilltop green meadow about 5 km from Kashmir Valley’s premier tourist resort Pahalgam, on Tuesday. Condemning the terror attack on tourists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that those behind the heinous act will be brought to justice. The Prime Minister also spoke to Union home minister Amit Shah following the attack and asked him to take all suitable steps to deal with the situation.Even as the administration counted dead bodies and injured, one report said that 27 people have been killed and several others injured in the worst terrorist attack of the past several years in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign burst into major violence in 1989-90. Among the dead are two locals and three foreigners — one reportedly from Italy, another from Israel and a Nepali, though the Israeli embassy in New Delhi said it has no information of any of its citizens being among the victims. The remaining victims are mainly domestic tourists, the police and hospital sources said.Another report, yet to be confirmed by the authorities, puts the death toll at 28, including 26 tourists (25 men and one woman) and two local Kashmiris.Pahalgam, about 90 km southeast of J&K capital Srinagar, is a basecamp of the annual Amarnath yatra, which is scheduled to begin on July 3 simultaneously from both traditional Pahalgam and shorter Baltal routes. The terror attack has taken place at a time when the scenic Kashmir Valley is witnessing a surge in tourist arrivals from across the country and abroad.Among the victims were Navy Lt Vinay Narwal and his wife Himanshi, Shalinder Kalpiya from Gujarat and businessman Manjunath Rao, a resident of Shivamogga district of Karnataka.An Intelligence Bureau officer posted in Hyderabad too was killed during the attack.Several others injured in the attack succumbed on the way to hospital.The police sources and witnesses said that the holidaymakers –mostly from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha — were enjoying horse-riding or engaged in other recreational activities in the meadow situated at a height of 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) and dotted with dense pine forests and surrounded by snowcapped mountains when a group of terrorists targeted them with automatic firearms. After committing the terror act, the gunmen fled back into the woods, the witnesses told the police.A purported video of the attack site emerged showing several people bleeding and lying motionless on the ground while women tourists were wailing and looking for their near and dear ones.Some of the witnesses said that the assailants were dressed in military fatigues and that they entered the meadow from the surrounding woods and opened fire without warning.The authorities pressed a chopper into service for the evacuation of the injured persons, the officials said, adding some of the injured were brought down from the meadows by local people on their ponies.J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a post on X, said that the death toll is still being ascertained. He, however, also said, “Needless to say, this attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the police officials suspect that either Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) or one of their shadow groups could be involved. However, a section of local media late on Tuesday reported that The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of proscribed LeT, claimed responsibility.These reports quoting unnamed officials also said that possibly the group of terrorists involved in the attack could have crossed over from Kishtwar in Jammu and reached Baisaran through Kokernag in south Kashmir.The officials said that columns of the Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including the CRPF, joined J&K’s police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) to launch a hunt for the attackers while the wounded were rushed to hospitals.The Union home minister, who reached Srinagar from New Delhi late Tuesday evening to hold an emergency security review meeting with the top-ranking security and civil administration officials at Raj Bhavan and oversee the response to the terror attack, said that he had been directed by the Prime Minister to ensure swift and decisive action to address the incident.Shah is likely to visit Pahalgam on Wednesday morning, the official sources said.Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. M.V. Suchendra Kumar, who was in New Delhi for a military conference, is rushing to Srinagar to oversee the security forces’ operation against the terrorists involved in the attack, the defence sources here said, adding that he will be briefed by senior local commanders at the headquarters of the Army 15 Corps, also called Chinar Corps, at Srinagar’s Badami Bagh Cantonment before leaving for Pahalgam early Wednesday morning.The bloody incident has shaken the nation,...
