Twenty-six people were killed and 17 injured when suspected militants ambushed tourists in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, police said on Wednesday, the deadliest of its kind in the country in nearly two decades.

On Tuesday, an attack occurred in a meadow in the picturesque Pahalgam area of the Himalayan federal state, killing 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen, police reports said.

It was the worst ever civilian attack in India after the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and broke the relative peace in Kashmir, which has seen tourism flourish as anti-India sentiment has abated in the last few years.

The attack is interpreted as a setback for what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have billed as a key triumph in stripping semi-autonomous Jammu and Kashmir of its status and securing peace and prosperity for the restive Muslim-dominated territory.

In a social media post, the “Kashmir Resistance,” a little-known militant organization, took credit for the assault. It voiced dissatisfaction about the “demographic change” caused by the more than 85,000 “outsiders” who had landed in the area.

Shortly after the incident, hundreds of security personnel hurried to the Pahalgam region, where a large combing operation was initiated in the local forests, according to two security sources who spoke to Reuters. They said that roughly 100 individuals who were believed to have already supported militant causes were called in to police stations and questioned.

According to Indian security officials, Kashmir Resistance acts as a cover for militant organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen that are based in Pakistan. Pakistan, however, asserts that it only offers diplomatic and spiritual support to the insurgency in Kashmir.

Shafqat Ali Khan, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry, stated, “We are concerned about the loss of tourists’ lives.” He added, “We extend our condolences to the victims’ loved ones and wish for a swift recovery for the injured.”

What is actually happening in Kashmir?

In protest of the assault on visitors, whose growing numbers have boosted the local economy, more than a dozen local organizations demanded a closure in the federal territory on Wednesday.

In protest, many schools likewise called off classes for the day. According to officials, airlines were running additional flights from Srinagar, the territory’s summer capital, as tourists were fleeing the area in droves.

According to them, the demand for flights increased as a result of the main roadway that connected Srinagar to the rest of the nation being destroyed by severe rain and closed for repairs. Tourists were shown on television filing out of a Srinagar hotel and taking their bags to cabs.

“How can we keep going on our trip under these circumstances?” Sameer Bhardwaj, a visitor from New Delhi, told ANI. “Our safety is the top first. Everyone feels anxious here; we can only proceed if we are mentally at rest. Therefore, we cannot continue our journey. “

Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu’s office declared that four special flights will operate from Srinagar: two heading to Delhi and two to Mumbai, along with standby flights on standby for any further evacuation needs.

Naidu convened an emergency meeting with all airline operators and instructed them to keep fare levels stable, making sure no passenger faces difficulties during this sensitive time, reads the statement.

Half-claimed by Hindu India and partly ruled by Islamic Pakistan, Kashmir has been plagued by militant violence since the anti-Indian insurgency started in 1989. Tens of thousands of individuals have been murdered, even though there has been a recent reduction in the level of violence.

India in 2019 abrogated the special status of Kashmir and divided the state into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, both of which are under the administration of the federation. The action gave the local governments authority over the right to confer residency rights on outsiders, which enabled them to own property and work within the area.

Consequently, relations with Pakistan, which also makes territorial claims, soured. The conflict has led to military war and fierce hostility between the neighbors who are nuclear-armed. There have not been numerous attacks in Kashmir targeting visitors. The last deadly incident happened in June 2024 when a bus full of Hindu pilgrims crashed into a deep canyon after being attacked by militants, killing at least nine people and injuring 33.