• “Kashmir Resistance” claims responsibility for attack.
• Expresses discontent over settling of over 85,000 “outsiders”.
• Trump offers full support to India; PM Modi vows justice.

SRINAGAR: Indian security forces launched a massive hunt on Wednesday for attackers suspected of killing 26 men at a tourist destination in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in the worst attack on civilians in nearly two decades, with New Delhi pledging a strong response.

At least 17 people were also injured in the shooting that took place on Tuesday in the Baisaran valley in the Pahalgam area of the scenic, Himalayan federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national, police said.

It was the worst attack on civilians since the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and shattered the relative calm in IIOJK, where tourism has boomed as an anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years.

The attack is seen as a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)..

Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi on Wednesday morning. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also cutting short her visit to the United States and Peru “to be with our people in this difficult and tragic time”, her ministry said.

Modi held a meeting with the national security adviser, the foreign minister and other senior officials at the airport and a special security cabinet meeting was called for 1230 GMT, a defence ministry official said.

“We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India,” Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said ahead of the meeting.

“There will be a loud and clear response soon,” he said at a memorial lecture for a former Indian Air Force chief.

Hunt for attackers

Security forces rushed to the Pahalgam area soon after the attack and began combing the forests there, two security sources told Reuters. About 100 people, suspected to have been rebel sympathisers in the past, were called to police stations and questioned, they added.

Police also released sketches of three of the four suspected attackers, who were dressed in traditional long shirts and loose trousers and one of them was wearing a bodycam, one security source said. There were about 1,000 tourists and about 300 local service providers and workers in the valley when the attack took place, he said.

A little-known 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”.

“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

Kashmir shutdown

On Wednesday, over a dozen local organisations called for a shutdown in the occupied territory to protest against the attack on tourists, whose rising numbers have helped the local economy.

Many schools also suspended classes for the day in protest.

The shutdown was total and protesters turned out in several locations shouting slogans such as “Stop killing innocents”, “Tourists are our lives”, “It is an attack on us”.

“I want to say to the people of the country that we are ashamed, Kashmir is ashamed,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement. “We are standing with you in this time of crisis.”

Airlines were operating extra flights from Srinagar, the summer capital of the territory, as visitors were rushing out of the region, officials said.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the exodus of our guests,” serving Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on X, adding that the main highway connecting Srinagar to the rest of the country, which was damaged by heavy rain, had been opened for one-way traffic out of Srinagar to help tourists leaving by road.

While some local tourist operators said they were already getting cancellations for the upcoming peak summer season, the local unit of the Travel Agents Federation of India condemned the attack.

Trump offers full support to India

US President Donald Trump called Modi to quickly offer “full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack”.

Among the foreign leaders condemning the attack and offering support, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen pledged that “Europe will stand with you”.

India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory. In recent years, the authorities have promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter, and to escape the sweltering summer heat elsewhere in India.

Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, mostly domestic visitors.

The worst attack in recent years took place in Pulwama in February 2019, when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy, killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.

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 disputed Himalayan territory. That led to a deterioration of ties with Pakistan. The dispute has spurred bitter animosity and military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Attacks targeting tourists in IIOJK have been rare. The last deadly incident took place in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after an attack caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge.