The 2025 Pahalgam attack was an attack on tourists by five armed Islamist militants near Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed on 22 April 2025.The militants mainly targeted Hindu tourists, though a Christian tourist and a local Muslim were also killed in the attack.
The incident took place at the tourist spot in Baisaran Valley and is considered the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
(TRF), which is believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based UN-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba,initially claimed responsibility, stating that the attack was in opposition to Indian government policy allowing Indian citizens to live and work in Kashmir, that resulted in non-local settlement in the region.Four days later, they retracted their claim of responsibility. Previously, TRF has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks on the security personnel and civilians in the Kashmir region.
The attackers, armed with M4 carbines and AK-47s, entered the tourist spot, which is surrounded by dense pine forests. According to survivors, the militants singled out the men, and asked their religion before shooting the Hindu men.Some tourists were asked to recite the Islamic verse of kalima, and those who were unable to recite it were killed.Of the 26 people killed, 25 were tourists, and one was a local Muslim pony ride operator who tried to wrestle a gun from the attackers. The attack has caused a surge in Islamophobic and anti-Kashmiri sentiments across India.
The attack further intensified tensions between India and Pakistan and led to a standoff between the countries.India accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism and suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, expelled Pakistani diplomats and closed borders.Pakistan denied India's accusations and retaliated by suspending the Simla Agreement, restricting trade, and closing airspace.Border skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani forces began along the Line of Control on 24 April 2025. India closed its airspace to Pakistani airlines on 30 April, and on 3 May, it banned all imports from Pakistan, prohibited Pakistan-flagged ships from entering any of its ports, and suspended the exchange of all categories of mail and parcels from Pakistan via air and surface routes.
Targeted Attack on Hindu Tourists
The militants asked for the names and religions of the tourists , and specifically targeted those who were Hindus. The attackers killed the Hindu men after separating them from the Muslim men. Some tourists were asked to recite the Islamic verse of kalima, so that the militants could segregate them by religion. Some Hindu men were forced to remove their trousers to check for a lack of circumcision before being shot at close range, and video footage from the scene showed scenes of panic with injured victims pleading for help and bodies strewn across the ground.Accounts from survivors indicated that an attacker spared a woman telling that she was being spared so she could "narrate the horrors" to the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
The first tourist to be shot was newly married Shubham Dwivedi from Kanpur, who was visiting Kashmir with his wife. The militants approached the couple and asked, “Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?” and Dwivedi responded that “We are Hindus” and was shot point-blank in the head. Another newly wed victim was Indian Navy lieutenant, Vinay Narwal from Haryana, who went to Pahalgam six days after his wedding with his wife.[68] In a viral video of the attack, his wife is heard saying "a man suddenly came and said he's not Muslim then shot him."[69] The militants shot three bullets into Narwal’s neck, chest and thighs "after realizing he was a Hindu.
The daughter of a Hindu tourist from Pune recounted that militants asked her father to recite an Islamic verse, and "when he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one on the head, one behind the ear and another in the back”.The wife of another victim from Andhra Pradesh told the state's deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan that she and her husband lay on the ground, and the terrorists asked twice, "Hindu hai, muslim hai?" (lit. 'Are (you) Hindu? Are (you) Muslim?'), and when they did not respond, her husband was shot dead.A Bengali Hindu professor from Assam, who hid his identity by reciting the Islamic Kalma escaped the killing , while a Christian man from Madhya Pradesh was shot dead after being unable to recite the Islamic Kalma. His wife said the attackers took selfies with the dead bodies.
Casualties
Number of casualties by state or country
State or Country Deaths Injured
Maharashtra 6 5
Gujarat 3 2
Karnataka 3 2
West Bengal 2 1
Madhya Pradesh 2 2
Nepal 1 1
Andhra Pradesh 1 1
Chhatisgarh 1 1
Arunachal Pradesh 1 -
Bihar 1 -
Haryana 1 -
Jammu and Kashmir 1 -
Kerala 1 -
Odisha 1 -
Uttar Pradesh 1 -
Tamil Nadu - 2
Total 26
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