The Pahalgam incident
EDITORIAL: The horrific attack in the scenic Pahalgam region of Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) that left 26 tourists dead — among them a newly married young navy officer on his honeymoon — and dozens others wounded, cannot be denounced enough. According to press reports, the gunmen separated men from women before killing them in cold blood.
No known Kashmiri militant group has taken responsibility for the attack; instead, a mysterious entity calling itself 'The Resistance Front' has claimed credit for the carnage. Without waiting for the police investigation, India's shrill electronic media immediately started to pin the blame on 'Pakistan-backed terrorists.'
Meanwhile, Umar Farooq, Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organisation of pro-independence groups, strongly condemned the attack saying such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir 'which welcomes visitors with love and warmth' and that his thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families.
Significantly, this rare attack on tourists comes at a time US Vice President JD Vance has been visiting India along with his family. If the so-called Resistance Front does exist and had wanted to publicise its cause, it should have known better. As expected, Vance extended 'condolences to victims of the devastating terrorist attack in Pahalgam' while President Donald Trump assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the US' full support following the 'Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir'.
Most likely, it has been a false flag operation, just like the one that coincided with the March 2000 India visit by the then US President Bill Clinton. Some 36 Sikh men in Chitisinghpora in Anantnag district of IIOJ&K were similarly massacred by unidentified gunmen after separating them from women. The Sikhs were, and are, considered a neutral party in the fight between the Kashmiri freedom fighters and India.
The real Kashmiri resistance had no reason to target the Sikhs then and the tourists now. Yet LK Advani, a prominent BJP leader at the time, in an apparent attempt to make an impression on Clinton had described the brutality as part of a Jihadist strategy to clear Kashmir of other faiths. The former president, though, reportedly was unconvinced.
In fact, he has been quoted as having said 'if I hadn't made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive.' A reporter for the New York Times Barry Bearak as well as two independent investigations reached a similar conclusion, laying the blame for the killings at the Indian government's door.
The 'extremely condemnable and heartbreaking' incident has drawn telling remarks from Congress party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. 'Instead of making hollow claims about the situation being normal in Jammu and Kashmir', he said, 'the government should now take accountability and take concrete steps so that such barbaric incidents do no happen in the future, and innocent Indians do no lose their lives like this.'
Unfortunately, the Modi government claims to have resolved the Kashmir issue, and yet uses it to accuse Pakistan of backing terrorism to justify the unjustifiable and also to cover up its own sponsorship of Pakistan-centric terror outfits.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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