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India has vowed to deliver a “very loud response” to those behind the killing by suspected militants of more than two dozen tourists in Kashmir, fanning fears of a confrontation with Pakistan over the disputed region.
“We will not only reach those who perpetrated this act, we will even reach those who, sitting behind the scenes, conspired to carry out such nefarious activities on Indian soil,” Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh told a conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Singh did not explicitly mention Pakistan, but New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting terrorism in the India-controlled territory of Jammu and Kashmir and has previously staged military strikes on its nuclear-armed neighbour in response to militant attacks there.
After cutting short a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to convene his cabinet on Wednesday to discuss his response to Tuesday’s attack by gunmen in the popular tourist destination of Pahalgam.
Police in the territory said 26 tourists were killed and 17 injured. They said the dead included a Nepali citizen and one other foreign national. It was the deadliest attack in Jammu and Kashmir in years and the worst against visitors to the region in decades.
“India is such an old civilisation and such a large country that it cannot be scared in any way by any such terrorist activities,” Singh told the conference. “Those responsible for such actions will witness a very loud response very soon.”
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, but it prompted immediate and widespread calls in India for retaliation against Pakistan. Hindu groups and members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party rallied in Jammu on Wednesday, with chants that included “Pakistan will be removed from the map”.
Shama Mohamed, a spokesperson for the opposition Indian National Congress, wrote on X that Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s military, “should be flattened”.
“No more trade, no more cricket, no more cultural activities. Time to teach Pakistan a lesson they don’t forget,” she wrote.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not directly address such calls or the claims of possible involvement.
“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the ministry said on Wednesday. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had been rising even before the Pahalgam attack after Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir last week referred to Kashmir as “our jugular vein”.
“We will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle,” Munir said in remarks that caused alarm in India.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have been estranged since independence in 1947 and downgraded diplomatic and commercial ties in 2019 after India stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its constitutional autonomy.
Tuesday’s assault was a setback for Modi’s government, which has claimed to have brought peace since it downgraded what was India’s only Muslim-majority state to a territory under direct federal rule.
The attack was the deadliest in the region since a 2019 suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel and prompted India to launch an air strike inside Pakistan on what it said was a terrorist training camp.
“This is a major, major incident,” Deependra Hooda, a retired general formerly responsible for India’s Northern Command, which includes Jammu and Kashmir, said of Tuesday’s attack. “Definitely, the government will want to respond in some way now.”
The attack prompted an exodus of visitors from a region that was wracked by violence for decades but had enjoyed a revival of tourism in recent years.
Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said in a social media post that aviation authorities were working to organise extra flights for people trying to leave Kashmir, and that he had directed the local administration to help tourist vehicles to depart the area.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said the news from Kashmir was “deeply disturbing”. “The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism,” he wrote.
