Paramedics carry a wounded tourist on a stretcher at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Photo:
Dar Yasin/AP
Four gunmen stormed a resort in Kashmir, India, opening fire and killing at least 24 tourists and injuring scores of others, police said.
Authorities described the mass shooting as a terror attack launched by militants who oppose India’s control over Kashmir.
“My husband was shot in the head!” one woman cried after the deadly attack, the Times of India reports.
“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s leader, wrote on social media.
The four men, described by authorities as militants fighting Indian rule, opened fire at close range at dozens of tourists in a meadow in Baisaran, The New York Times reports.
Baisaran is a meadow three miles from Pahalgam, a bucolic town in the Himalayas often described as the “Switzerland of India,” according to the BBC.
Most of the tourists who were shot or injured — some critically — were Indian, the Associated Press and ABC 7 report.
No group has come forward claiming responsibility for the attack.
Authorities have launched a nationwide manhunt for the shooters.
Vowing to bring the shooters to justice, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media, “I strongly condemn the terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest. All possible assistance is being provided to those affected.
“Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice…they will not be spared! Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger.”
Amit Shah, India’s Minister of Home Affairs, wrote on social media, “We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences.”
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The attack came at the same time that U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was visiting India.
Calling the shooting “a devastating terrorist attack,” Vance wrote on social media that “Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack.”
Militants in the Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting against New Delhi’s rule since 1989, the Associated Press reports.
