New Delhi/Srinagar:
The coffins carrying the bodies of tourists who were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam reached Srinagar airport today. While the nation mourns the huge loss, citizens have joined hands to demand decisive action against terrorists.
Here are some developments on the Pahalgam terror attack
- The terror attack at the picturesque tourist hotspot in Pahalgam was one of the biggest terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir after special status to the erstwhile state under Article 370 of the Constitution was withdrawn.
- Political leaders cutting across party lines have condemned the terror attack, and called for strong action at the heart of terror. Pakistani forces routinely help terrorists in infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
- Hundreds of tourists have cut short their Jammu and Kashmir visit. Many have crowded at Srinagar airport to leave. Air India added two more flights from Srinagar to Delhi and Mumbai to ensure safe return of tourists from Kashmir valley.
- In Karnataka’s Shivamogga, preparations were on for the funeral at the house of Manjunath, one of the tourists who was killed in Pahalgam. The family is expecting the body to be brought home today.
- Newly married Shubham Dwivedi, 31, who came to Pahalgam from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, was asked by the terrorists to recite a ‘kalma’, or the Islamic declaration of faith. He was shot in front of his wife. “Tell your government what we did to your husband,” a family member of Shubham Dwivedi said.
- The victims were citizens from across the country, from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the south to Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Uttar Pradesh in the north, among others.
- Arunachal Pradesh resident and Indian Air Force Corporal Tage Haliyang was one of the terror victims. Haliyang, 30, was from Tajang village in Arunachal’s Ziro. He was on vacation with his wife when the Islamic terrorists struck.
- Indians on social media from across the globe have asked the government to take strong action in the form of destroying the launchpads of terrorists. They cited the IAF airstrike on a terror camp in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir’s Balakot in February 2019.
- The security forces have been searching for the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack since yesterday. Earlier today, two terrorists were shot dead in an encounter during an infiltration attempt in Uri.
- The authorities are working on a plan to fill the security “vacuum” with a permanent deployment of army and paramilitary forces in the mountains overlooking tourist destinations in Kashmir valley, news agency PTI reported.