By M S Nazki
The flushing meadows were bloodied by mindless killers who always want to keep things on the boil
-This attack was a testimony to the above mentioned fact but what did Pakistan achieve? Absolutely nothing!
-The attack pushed Kashmir back into the era of darkness as the booming tourist activity at the moment has come to a standstill and the same may remain the condition from several months onwards!
-The life in Kashmir which had become normal is once again severely disturbed and it will take an enormous amount of time to come up to the situation before a maniac like strike from the murderers of humanity which wants peace!
-But who will tell this to the wooden headed Pak Army Chief Asif Munir who is still muttering words that down street usually say in a blaring, absurd and blazing tone!
-The assassins mainly targeted Hindu tourists, though a Christian tourist and a local Muslim were also killed. The attackers, armed with M4 carbines and AK-47s, entered the tourist spot in Baisaran Valley surrounded by dense pine forests. This incident is considered the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
-The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be an offshoot of Pakistan-based, UN-designated, Islamist terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), initially claimed responsibility for the attack.
– TRF released a statement that the attack was in opposition to non-local settlement in the region resulting from the abolition of the special status of Kashmir. However, TRF later denied involvement in the attack and blamed Indian cyber-intelligence for earlier reports that it claimed responsibility.
-This was akin to a syndrome, ‘Hum (Indians) Shareef Kya Bane, Puri Duniya (Pakistan) Bdamash Ban Gayi! The mayhem created a resounding vocal impact! For Pakistan it was just another terror attack but for India an act that had to be punished and that had to come soon! Pakistan had to be under the big bangs as the sky over them was lit up and ground beneath their feet was to be reduced to a heap!
-What happened in this gruesome act:
-The militants singled out the men and asked for their religion before shooting the Hindu and Christian tourists. The attackers also asked some tourists to recite the Islamic kalima, a Muslim declaration of faith, to identify non-Muslims. Of the 26 people killed, 25 were tourists, and one was a local Muslim pony ride operator who tried to wrestle a gun from the attackers. The tourists included several newlywed couples, and the men were shot point-blank in front of their wives.
-Background:
-The Jammu and Kashmir insurgency began in the late 1980s, as part of the wider Kashmir conflict. Pakistan’s role in launching the insurgency as well as in turning it into an Islamist militancy are well-documented in the scholarly literature.
-In 2019, the Indian government revoked the special status previously granted to Jammu and Kashmir, and extended the Constitution of India to the state in full, enabling non-Kashmiris to purchase property and settle down in Kashmir.
– Also related is the issuance of domicile status to non-Kashmiris, qualifying them for jobs and college seats. Fears have been expressed that these changes would result in a change in demographics in Kashmir, with non-locals settling in the area.
-After the revocation, a new militant group called The Resistance Front (TRF) sprang up in Kashmir, believed to have been sponsored by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN designated terrorist group.
– TRF has also been designated as a terrorist organisation in India. The TRF was formed from cadres of LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir,
– TRF has carried out attacks on Hindu minority communities.
-Prior to 2025, the largest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in preceding years were the 2016 Uri attack and 2019 Pulwama attack. India blamed Pakistan-based militants for both of them and conducted retaliatory strikes.
– In the weeks preceding the Pahalgam attack, India acquired the extradition of former Pakistan Army officer Tahawwur Rana, who was linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and convicted (in the US) for supporting 2008 Mumbai attacks.
– Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a speech describing Kashmir as “our jugular vein” and branding Hindus as being different from Muslims in every way via an appeal to two-nation theory.
-The Indian government and media have long alleged that Pakistan supports insurgent groups such as TRF. Pakistan denies any support for militants including those involved in Jammu and Kashmir, officially maintaining only “diplomatic and moral support” for the Kashmiri people.
-Baisaran Valley, where the attack took place
On 22 April 2025, five militants entered the Baisaran Valley meadow, which is located about 7 km (4.3 mi) from the Pahalgam town in Anantnag district. The area is surrounded by dense pine forests on all sides, and is a popular spot for tourists; it is only accessible by foot or horseback. The region was not heavily protected. The attackers carried M4 carbines and AK-47s and wore military-style uniforms.
The attack was inadvertently filmed by a tourist from Ahmedabad, who was ziplining during the attack. The video footage from the scene showed scenes of panic with injured victims pleading for help and bodies strewn across the ground. A local Muslim pony operator, Syed Adil Hussain Shah reportedly tried to protect the tourists and wrestle the gun from one of the attackers before being shot and killed.
The militants asked for the names and religions of the tourists, and specifically targeted those who were Hindus. The attackers killed the Hindu men after separating them from the Muslim men.] Some tourists were asked to recite the Islamic verse of kalima, so that the militants could segregate them by religion. Some Hindu men were forced to remove their trousers to check for a lack of circumcision before being shot at close range. The militants told some Hindu women that they were spared so that they could narrate the horrors of their men’s killing to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
The first tourist to be shot was newly married Shubham Dwivedi from Kanpur, who was visiting Kashmir with his wife. The militants approached the couple and asked, “Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?” and Dwivedi responded “We are Hindus” and was shot point-blank in the head. Another newlywed victim was Indian Navy lieutenant, Vinay Narwal from Haryana, who went to Pahalgam six days after his wedding with his wife. In a viral video of the attack, his wife is heard saying “a man suddenly came and said he’s not Muslim then shot him.” The militants shot three bullets into Narwal’s neck, chest and thighs “after realizing he was a Hindu”.
The daughter of a Hindu tourist from Pune recounted that militants asked her father to recite an Islamic verse, and “when he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one on the head, one behind the ear and another in the back”. The wife of another victim from Andhra Pradesh told the state’s deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan that she and her husband lay on the ground, and the terrorists asked twice, “Hindu hai, muslim hai?” and when they did not respond, her husband was shot dead. A Bengali Hindu professor from Assam, who hid his identity by reciting the Islamic Kalima escaped the killing, while a Christian man from Madhya Pradesh was shot dead after being unable to recite the Kalima. His wife said the attackers took selfies with the dead bodies.
Can so much stink be filled into the minds of certain men like it was in the brains of the individuals who did this macabre act? By the events mentioned above it can be! They indeed drew the first blood but now it was the chance of INDIA! Remain with us as we will in depth carry this story in the coming days!
