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PAHALGAM, India: At least 24 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir when gunmen opened fire on tourists on Tuesday, a senior police officer told AFP, with authorities calling it the worst attack on civilians in years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi decried the “heinous act” in the summer retreat of Pahalgam, pledging the attackers “will be brought to justice.”
A tour guide told AFP he reached the scene after hearing gunfire and transported some of the wounded away on horseback.
“I saw a few men lying on the ground looking like they were dead,” said Waheed, who gave only one name.
The attack targeted tourists in Pahalgam, which lies about 90 kilometers (55 miles) by road from the key city of Srinagar.
The senior police officer in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a massacre in which at least 24 people had been killed.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989.
They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.
The killings come a day after Modi met with US Vice President JD Vance, who is on a four-day tour of India with his wife Usha and children.
Vance offered his and Usha’s condolences to the “victims of the devastating terrorist attack in Pahalgam.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack,” he wrote on X.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that “the attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” with the death toll “still being ascertained.”
“This attack on our visitors is an abomination,” he said in a statement. “The perpetrators of this attack are animals, inhuman and worthy of contempt.”
An AFP reporter at Pahalgam spoke to another witness of the shooting who asked not to be identified.
“The militants, I can’t say how many, came out of the forest near an open small meadow and started firing,” said the witness, who cares for the horses that are popular with tourists in the area.
“They were clearly sparing women and kept shooting at men, sometimes single shot and sometimes many bullets, it was like a storm.”
The witness said dozens of people fled as the gunmen opened fire.
“They all started running around in panic,” he added.
“We tried to comfort them but they were just screaming... we helped carry some injured out of there on ponies.”
India’s interior minister Amit Shah flew to Kashmir and vowed those responsible would be caught.
“Those involved in this dastardly act of terror will not be spared, and we will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Shah said in a statement.
One security source said that foreign tourists were among those shot, but there was no official confirmation.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a post on X, said he was “deeply saddened by the heinous terror attack on tourists,” adding that his nation “stands united with India.”
Medics at a hospital in Anantnag said they had received some of the wounded, including at least two with gunshot wounds, one with a bullet injury to the neck.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, called the killings “heartbreaking.”
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory, but fighting decreased since Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019.
“Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger,” Modi said in a statement following the attack.
In recent years, the authorities have heavily promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing during the winter months, and to escape the sweltering heat during the summer elsewhere in India.
Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, according to official figures, the majority domestic visitors.
In 2023, India hosted a G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar under tight security in a bid to show that what officials call “normalcy and peace” were returning after a massive crackdown.
A string of resorts are being developed, including some close to the heavily militarised de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
India regularly blames Pakistan for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination.
The worst attack in recent years took place in Pulwama in February 2019, when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.
The deadliest recent attack on civilians was in March 2000, when 36 people, all Indian civilians, were killed.