Indian troops, terrorist stand off after Kashmir massacre

Indian security forces on Wednesday exchanged gunfire with terrorists from the Pakistan-based group The Resistance Front in the Tangmarg area of southern Kashmir. The standoff came one day after terrorists killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in a picturesque meadow in Kashmir, India Today reported. The Resistance Front, a recent offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack, numerous media outlets reported.

The gunmen on Tuesday emerged from pine forests around the remote meadow and shot people who were picnicking, riding ponies, and eating at food stalls. The dead, who were all civilians, included two foreign tourists from the United Arab Emirates and Nepal and two locals, according to India Today. At least three dozen people were wounded, many of them seriously, the Associated Press reported.

Indian troops on Wednesday also shot two terrorists that officials said were trying to cross into India. About 1,500 people across the province have been detained in connection with the attack, India-based NDTV reported. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Wednesday that India would pursue not only the perpetrators of the attack but also conspirators behind the scenes.

Who are the perpetrators? Four to five Resistance Front terrorists carried out the attack, according to media reports. Officials said at least three were Pakistanis, identified as Asif Fauji, Suleman Shah and Abu Talha, India Today reported. The perpetrators were identified from sketches based on survivors’ descriptions.

How did leaders react to the attack? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his trip to Saudi Arabia and returned to chair a meeting of his cabinet committee on security. On social media, he said those behind the heinous act would be brought to justice and not be spared. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who was visiting India at the time of the attack and recently met with Modi, extended his condolences and prayers. India’s former foreign secretary, Kanwal Sibal, called for the suspension of a critical water treaty between India and Pakistan.

What was the motivation for the attack? The terrorists reportedly asked some of the tourists whether they were Muslim and asked them to recite the Kalma, a statement of faith in Islam, to prove it. They shot people who could not recite it, according to India Today. The terrorists targeted mainly male victims while telling their female relatives to tell the Indian government about the attack, according to India Today,

The Kashmir region has been caught in a bloody tug-of-war between majority-Hindu India and majority-Muslim Pakistan since the British partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Both countries claim full ownership of the region but control only parts of it. Though tensions have been high since Modi revoked Kashmir’s autonomous status in 2019, attacks on civilians in the region are rare, according to the Associated Press.