New Delhi (AP) – At least 26 people were killed And 17 others injured after armed men opened fire on a group of cashmere tourists under Indian control, the worst assault for years targeting civilians in the region carried out which has seen a Anti-Indian rebellion for more than three decades.
Tuesday’s attack took place in the picturesque city of Pahalgam in the Himalayas mountains, popular with Indian visitors.
Police accused the rebels of identifying the attack, which aroused indignation and attracted international conviction, including US President Donald Trump.
Fear of climbing tensions
Pahalgam is in the meadow of Baisaren, known locally under the name of “mini Swiss” and is only accessible on foot or on horseback. The city is a major tourist destination because of its alpine meadows, pine forests, snowy slopes and trekking routes.
It is also on a main annual Hindu pilgrimage path, Amarnath YatraAnd is one of its largest basic camps, attracting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. This year’s pilgrimage begins on July 3 and ends on August 9.
Tuesday’s attack has not been claimed by any group so far, and on Wednesday, Indian soldiers were still looking for the attackers.
Many fear that the tourism industry, which employs thousands of people, will be affected negatively.
This also occurs while Prime Minister Narendra Modi should soon inaugurate a railway line of several billion dollars at the Kashmir Valley, which, according to his government, will help tourism and economic development in the region.
Modi has criticized “the odious act” and promised that activists “will be brought to justice”.
On Wednesday, the powerful Minister of India, Amit Shah, visited the attack site.
The India-Pakistan dispute against cashmere
India and Pakistan have each claimed cashmere since the war broke out following the British partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Border skirmishes have long created instability in the region.
The two rivals of the arc also fought three wars on cashmere, where the armed insurgents resisted the Indian regime for decades, with many Muslim cashmiris supporting the objective of the territory rebels, either under Pakistani domination, or as an independent country.
India has accused Pakistan of promoting violence in the region of the Muslim majority. Islamabad denies the accusation and many Kashmiris consider him a legitimate struggle of freedom. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces were killed in the conflict.
In 2019, the Modi government revoked the semi-automobile status of cashmere and imposed radical security measures. Since then, his government has kept order in the region with a huge security and radically presence Dissension, civil freedoms and media freedoms.
Attacks against tourists in cashmere are rare
Activists had already attacked civilians, but the last major attack took place in 2000. And although the region saw a Targeted murder spate In the distant mountains in recent years, violence has largely decreased in the cashmere valley, the heart of anti-Indian rebellion.
Indian tourism prospered in cashmere after the government of Modi promoted visits to the region in the hope of showing an increase in tourism figures as a sign of renewed stability, although in the presence of intensive security, control points, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
Millions of visitors Now arrives at cashmere every year to see his Himalayan foothills and her leaning coarse extremely decorated, because the fighting between government forces and rebels have largely transferred to the region of the backward regions of Jammu, where the Indian troops have faced fatal attacks.
The attack coincides with the visit of Vance India
Tuesday’s attack came while US vice-president JD Vance was on a tourist trip to the Indian city of Jaipur on Tuesday, one day after meeting Modi in New Delhi.
Vance condemned the killings, saying: “In the past few days, we have been overwhelmed by the beauty of this country and its inhabitants. Our thoughts and prayers are with them while they cry this horrible attack.”
He will be in the Indian city of Agra Wednesday to visit the emblematic monument of Taj Mahal, which is about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of the attack site.
Trump also denounced the attack and expressed his solidarity “with India against terrorism” and called Modi to transmit his sympathies, according to Indian authorities.
Other leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates also expressed their conviction.
Activists had already planned attacks to coincide with high -level visits.
One of the most notorious attacks was the murder of at least 35 civilians in a cashmere village shortly before a visit to India by the president of the time, Bill Clinton.
