Multiple deaths feared as gunmen fire on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Indian security officers patrol in armoured vehicles near Pahalgam in south Kashmir — Police and soldiers cordoned off the area and launched a hunt for the attackers (Dar Yasin/AP)

Multiple deaths are feared after gunmen indiscriminately fired at tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said, with police calling it a “terror attack” and blaming militants fighting against Indian rule.

“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

“The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” he said.

Paramedics carry a wounded tourist on a stretcher at a hospital in Anantnag (Dar Yasin/AP)

Initial reports said gunmen sprayed bullets at mostly Indian tourists visiting Baisaran meadow, some three miles (5km) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam.Police said multiple tourists had gunshot wounds, and officials were evacuating them to hospitals.

Police and soldiers cordoned off the area and launched a hunt for the attackers.

India’s home minister Amit Shah headed to Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he said he would review the situation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on an official visit in Saudi Arabia, was briefed about the incident, Mr Shah said.

Indian security officers stand guard at a hospital in Anantnag (Dar Yasin/AP)

“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” he wrote on social media.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key Kashmiri resistance leader, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack on tourists”, adding: “Such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes visitors with love and warmth. Condemn it strongly.”

The attack coincided with the visit to India of US Vice President JD Vance, who is on a largely personal four-day visit.

An Indian policeman checks a civilian's bag in Srinagar, in Indian-controlled Kashmir — An Indian policeman searches a civilian’s bag in Srinagar, in Indian-controlled Kashmir (Mukhtar Khan/AP)

The meadow in Pahalgam is a top sightseeing destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.