India binds strong response after Iiojk attack kills 26 tourists

• Kashmir Resistance claims responsibility for attack.
• Expresses dissatisfaction with the arrangement of more than 85,000 “external”.
• Trump offers full support to India. PM Modi binds justice.

Srinagar: Indian security forces began a huge hunt on Wednesday for attackers suspected of killing 26 men at a tourist destination in Indian illegal occupied mosquito and Kashmir (Iiojk) in the worst attack on civilians.

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 picturesque federal territory of Jamos and Kassmir. The dead included 25 Indians and a Nepal national, police said.

It was the worst attack on civilians by the 2008 Mumbai shootings and destroyed the relative tranquility at Iiojk, where tourism has been developed as the uprising against India has declined in recent years.

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

Modi cut his two -day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi on Wednesday morning. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also reduced 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 National Security Councilor, Foreign Minister and other senior airport officials and a special cabinet meeting was requested for 1230 GMT, a defense ministry official said.

“We will not only reach those who have committed this incident, but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on India’s territory,” India Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said before the meeting.

“There will soon be a strong and clear answer,” he said in a monument lecture for a former Chief of the Indian Air Force.

Hunt for attackers

Security forces rushed to the Pahalgam area shortly after the attack and began combing the forests there, two sources in Reuters said. About 100 people, suspected of being revolutionary compassionate 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 pants and one of them was wearing a bodycam, a security source said. There were about 1,000 tourists and about 300 local service providers and valley workers when the attack took place, he said.

A little well -known group, the “Kashmir Resistance”, took responsibility for attacking a message of social media. He expressed dissatisfaction that more than 85,000 “foreigners” had settled in the area, causing a “demographic change”.

“We are worried about the loss of tourists’ lives,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement. “We are expanding our condolences to the deceased nearby and want the injured a quick recovery.”

Closure of Kashmir

On Wednesday, more than twelve local organizations demanded a discontinuation of the occupied territory to protest against tourists, whose growing numbers helped the local economy.

Many schools also suspend classes for the day in protest.

The closure was overall, and the protesters proved to various locations that shout slogans such as “stop killing innocent”, “tourists are our life”, “it is an attack on us”.

“I want to tell the people of the country that he is ashamed, Kashmir is ashamed,” said former Jamos and Kashmir leader Mehbooba Mufti in a statement. “We are standing with you at this time of crisis.”

Airlines were operating additional flights from Srinagar, the summer capital of the territory, as visitors rushed out of the area, officials said.

“It is spasmodic to see the exit of our guests,” said chief minister Omar Abdullah on X, adding that the main highway that connects Srinagar with the rest of the country, which was damaged by heavy rain, had opened it for a single road.

While some local tourism agencies said they had already been canceled for the upcoming summer season, the Local Unit of the India Travel Federation condemned the attack.

Trump offers full support to India

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

Among the foreign leaders who condemn the attack and support offer, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen promised that “Europe will stand with you”.

India has about 500,000 soldiers who are permanently developing in the territory. In recent years, authorities have promoted the mountainous area as a holiday destination, both for winter skiing and to escape summer heat elsewhere in India.

About 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, mainly home visitors.

The worst attack in recent years took place in Pulwama in February 2019, when the guerrillas dug an explosive car in a police escort, killing 40 and injuring at least 35 others.

India recalled Kashmir’s special regime in 2019, dividing the state into two federal territories – Jamos and Kashmir and Ladak.

The move has allowed local authorities to issue housing rights to strangers, allowing them to find jobs and buy land on the controversial territory of the Himalayas. This led to a deterioration in bonds with Pakistan. The controversy prompted the bitter hostility and military conflict between nuclear neighbors.

The attacks aimed at tourists on Iiojk were rare. The last deadly incident took place in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and injured 33 after an attack caused a bus carrying Hindus pilgrims to sink into a deep canyon.