Gunmen open fire on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir | Gun Violence News

No claim of responsibility but police call it ‘terror attack’ by rebels under intensifying military crackdown in region.

Armed men opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, with some of them feared killed.

Police said multiple tourists received gunshot wounds in the “terror attack” on Tuesday while they were visiting Baisaran meadow, some 5km (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam.

“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

Local media reported at least 20 people were killed but Abdullah said he could not provide details as “the death toll is still being ascertained”.

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack, which police blamed on armed groups fighting against Indian rule, according to The Associated Press news agency. Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers while the wounded were rushed to hospitals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit in Saudi Arabia, decried the “heinous act” in Pahalgam, pledging the attackers “will be brought to justice”.

India’s interior minister, Amit Shah, is heading to Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he said he would review the situation.

“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Shah wrote in a post on the X social media platform.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist leader in Kashmir, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack on tourists” in a post on X. “Such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes visitors with love and warmth. Condemn it strongly.”

Kashmir has been under an intensified military crackdown since its semi-autonomous status was revoked by the Indian government about six years ago.

The attack follows violence earlier this month between security forces and suspected rebels, which resulted in six deaths, including four officers.

Attacks targeting tourists in Kashmir have been rare in recent years, the last one dating back to June, when fighters attacked a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims, plunging it into a deep gorge and killing at least nine people.

Between India and Pakistan

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Many in the Muslim-majority, Indian-administered Kashmir support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory with Pakistan or creating an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir uprising is Pakistan-sponsored. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.

The Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The same year, a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir and called for a commission of inquiry into the allegations.