By M S Nazki
With Fire burning in the hearts of the people, India prepared for a response! But before the final delivery punch came in several things!
-Everyone in the Nation knew that India would retaliate but the same was not done in a haste!
– We wanted to strike at the time and place of our choosing, though the targets were well known yet the fact is that detailed inputs were needed for a precision strike!
-Pakistan was back to its usual games by thudding the innocents with Mortar shells and piercing the walls of the houses of the people with bullets!
-But Indian democracy held its faith in the armed forces!
-Everyone was scrabbling for thoughts as to what would happen next!
-The Indian Generals, the top guns from the armed forces, the air force and white marauders from the navy knew what had to be done!
-And what they were going to do we will be coming out in the subsequent chapters in this war which sent the terror infrastructure in Pakistan bundling over like ninepins!
-This particular chapter we would be taking over tomorrow?
-What happened after the Pahalgam attack:
-In the aftermath, locals assisted in the rescue effort and offered shelter to victims. Members of the local pony-handlers association rescued 11 injured tourists on ponies and improvised stretchers. Gurudwaras in Kashmir opened their doors to shelter tourists fleeing the valley in fear, as many sought safety closer to cities and airports to return to their home states.
– Emergency services arrived at the scene after news of the attack reached district headquarters. Two critically injured victims were taken to the district hospital at Anantnag at around 16:30, while others were transported to nearby medical centres.
-The critically injured were airlifted to a military hospital in Srinagar by helicopter for further treatment. A helpline was established to assist affected tourists.
-A joint cordon and search operation was launched by the Indian Army, paramilitary forces, and Jammu and Kashmir Police. A temporary lockdown was imposed in Pahalgam, and Indian Army helicopters were deployed to track down the militants, who reportedly fled to the upper reaches of the Pir Panjal range.
-On 24 April, an Indian soldier was killed and two other soldiers wounded during a gunfight with insurgents in the Basantgarh area of Udhampur.
-Authorities conducted extensive searches in Indian-administered Kashmir, detaining more than 1,500 people for questioning. They also demolished the houses of the families of at least 10 alleged militants.
-What was the motive:
-The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility for the attack, linking it to Indian government policy that allows non-Kashmiris to live and work in Kashmir, resulting in non-local settlement in Kashmir. In a statement on the social media platform Telegram, TRF opposed the granting of domicile certificates to “outsiders”, and voiced discontent at resulting alleged demographic changes in the region. It claimed, “These non-locals arrive posing as tourists, obtain domiciles, and then begin to act as if they own the land. Consequently, violence will be directed toward those attempting to settle illegally.”
-TRF has a history of targeting non-Kashmiri settlers on such grounds. In June 2020, it released a statement saying, “any Indian who comes with an intention to settle in Kashmir will be treated as an agent of RSS and not as a civilian and will be dealt with appropriately.” In December 2020, it shot and killed a 70-year-old goldsmith, who had lived in Kashmir close to 50 years, branding him part of the “settler” project. In February 2021, it killed a Punjabi restauranteur’s son, even though Punjabi Khatris are a well-established part of Srinagar’s retail business, having arrived there well before 1947.
– In October seven civilians were killed in the span of a week, including two school teachers, a pharmacist and poor economic migrants. According to Puri, such killings of civilians are not normally condoned by the populace but the atmosphere of “mass-scale hysteria” in the Valley on potential demographic changes allows TRF to get away with them.
-On 26 April, TRF retracted responsibility for the attack, claiming that their initial claim of responsibility was a communications breach. TRF accused Indian intelligence operatives of having a part in the attack, and stated that they were conducting their own investigation into the perpetrators.
-On 7 May 2025, the foreign secretary of India Vikram Misri stated in a press conference that the objective of the attack was to negatively impact the economy by attacking tourism in the union territory.
-The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility for the attack, linking it to Indian government policy that allows non-Kashmiris to live and work in Kashmir, resulting in non-local settlement in Kashmir. In a statement on the social media platform Telegram, TRF opposed the granting of domicile certificates to “outsiders”, and voiced discontent at resulting alleged demographic changes in the region. It claimed, “These non-locals arrive posing as tourists, obtain domiciles, and then begin to act as if they own the land. Consequently, violence will be directed toward those attempting to settle illegally.”
-This was nothing but bunkum all the way!
-The response had started:
-India’s National Investigation Agency initiated an investigation into the attack after visiting the site on 23 April. Based on eyewitness testimonies, the Jammu and Kashmir Police released sketches of three of the militants believed to have been involved in the attack. The police stated that all of them were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and at least two are foreigners. Police confirmed that all of them have been linked to previous militancy-related incidents in the Poonch region. Following the attack, hundreds of former overground workers and ex-militants were interrogated in Kashmir.
-Indian authorities linked the Pahalgam attack to Pakistan, with digital traces leading to safe houses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi. They concluded that forensic evidence and intelligence intercepts suggested potential support from operatives based in Pakistan.
– Indian forces demolished the homes of suspected militants living in Kashmir. Followed by the investigation, NIA found that the attack was done under the directives issued by senior operatives of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
-On 26 April, a new first information report (FIR) was registered by the central anti-terrorism agency, following an order from the counter terrorism and counter radicalisation (CTCR) division of the ministry of home affairs.
-Independently, investigative journalists from the media found that the demand for the high-resolution satellite imagery of the Pahalgam area surged at Maxar two months before the Pahalgam attack. The period of the surge coincided with the joining of a Pakistani geospatial firm, Business Systems International (BSI), as a ‘partner’ with Maxar. The firm’s owner Obaidullah Syed was previously convicted for illegally exporting computer equipment and software to Pakistani government agencies.
-On 24 April, the Jammu and Kashmir Police announced a bounty of ₹2,000,000 (US$30,000) for information leading to the identification, arrest, or elimination of the individuals responsible for the Pahalgam attack. As per security forces, four terrorists were suspected to have been involved in the attack. The J&K police revealed their identities and released their sketches based on the details given by the survivors of the attack. Out of these four, two are infiltrators from Pakistan, and two are local Kashmir residents who allegedly aided them. These four terrorists have been identified by the Jammu and Kashmir police as Ali Bhai alias Talha (Pakistani), Asif Fauji (Pakistani), Adil Hussain Thoker (a resident of Anantnag) and Ahsan (a resident of Pulwama).
-What happened subsequently:
Security agencies identified three terrorists behind the Pahalgam terror attack. Two of them — Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafeez Saeed and his deputy Saifullah Kasuri — are in Pakistan, while the third, Hashim Moosa, is believed to be hiding in the forests of south Kashmir. An extensive operation is underway to capture him, with concerns that he may attempt to flee to Pakistan. Hashim Moosa, a former para-commando in Pakistan’s Special Service Group, joined Lashkar-e-Taiba and has been involved in several terror attacks since infiltrating India in 2023. Authorities aim to capture him alive to confirm Pakistan’s involvement in the attack. He was involved in a deadly October attack in Ganderbal that killed seven and another in Baramulla where four security personnel died. In total, he has been linked to at least six terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
-Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to India to chair a meeting with the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on the issue. After this meeting, the Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, briefed senior diplomats around the world regarding five major decisions made by the Indian government. He announced India would immediately suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan until Pakistan ceases its support for cross-border terrorism. He further announced the closure of the main border crossing between the two countries, a travel ban of all Pakistani nationals to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme, and a cancellation of all previously issued visas. Pakistani military advisers at the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi were expelled, and their Indian counterparts in Islamabad were withdrawn.
-Union home minister Amit Shah travelled to Srinagar to assess the situation and coordinate the security response, and later travelled to the site of the attack. On 23 April, the Indian Army gave limited clearance for the operation of its grounded HAL Dhruv fleet for counterterrorism operations.
Everything was in order but several other things had to be taken care of! They were duly taken and the time was not far off for the H-hour to arrive and once it did Pakistan was just blown off like dust in an oil-less frying pan! The story Continues so please keep reading!
