Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia to return to Delhi on Wednesday, will preside over a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting to assess and deliberate on follow-up actions on the audacious attack on tourists at Baisaan meadow in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on Tuesday. The attack resulted in 26 fatalities and left 17 injured.
Upon his arrival at the Delhi airport, Modi held a meeting with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and others. During the meeting he was briefed on the unprecedented attack on tourists, post abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
The CCS meeting is scheduled in the evening, as two of its five members are expected to return to Delhi by then. While Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to return to Delhi from Srinagar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also coming back on Wednesday from an official foreign trip.
The remaining two members of the CCS — Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar —are already in Delhi.
Prime Minister Modi may visit Srinagar soon as an advance team of Special Protection Group, which guards the PM, is already in the Union Territory (UT) to recce places he decides to go to send a message of solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir during in times of crisis.
‘Go tell Modi’
One of the terrorists, after killing a male tourist from Karnataka, reportedly told the victim’s wife, “Go and tell Modi about it,” when she asked why he spared her and their child.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah held a series of meetings after flying down to Srinagar on Tuesday evening. These meetings were attended by top Army brass, Jammu and Kashmir DGP Nalin Prabhat, and CRPF DG Gyanendra Pratap Singh.
The autopsy of the terror incident, route of infiltration, deployment and need to scale up security further since Amarnath yatra is due in July have been discussed in the meeting which went on till 4 am on Wednesday morning, said sources.
The case is likely to be handed over to the NIA (National Investigation Agency) for investigation.
Analysing the barbaric incident, security sources said the attack on Hindus by proscribed Lashkar-e-Toiba’s affiliate The Resistance Front (TF) was meant to create communal divide within the Union Territory and pull the region back into a situation where the Kashmiris are forced to rely on the terror economy for their survival and become a fodder for the Pakistan-based ISI to create mayhem that defined pre-abrogation of Article 370 era.
It is also meant to check rest of India settling down in Kashmir as Lashkar top leadership and some hardliners in J&K are singing the same tune. Even in J&K assembly, Opposition had created ruckus over more than 80,000 domicile certificates issued by the State.
For the first time in more than three decades, the Kashmir Valley observed a shutdown against the terror attack in Pahalgam. Videos of candle light march to denounce the terror strike were visible in the social media though some security experts believe that not too much should be read into it.
Sources said that this was because the locals fear terror will impact their earnings out of tourism which has peaked since peace settled in the Jammu and Kashmir in the last more than five years.
The profiteers of terror economy entrenched in the society but silenced these years are wanting to stage a comeback so that stone pelting small scale industry gets revived, making the peace loving Kashmiris bonded again to the fatwas of hardliners in Jammu and Kashmir, said an officer who is aware of the developments in the UT.
The attack, therefore, is meant to challenge the narrative that democracy is back in Jammu and Kashmir, schools and colleges were running normally like elsewhere in the country, investments were coming into the UT even from abroad, cinema halls had opened and people, especially women, were seen enjoying late night outings in Srinagar.
Security sources also stated that tanzeems had resorted to diversionary tactics in the last few years to carry out more attacks in Jammu region so that military, and central armed police force deployment is concentrated in that part of the UT. The security forces had lowered their guard in the Kashmir region which was exploited to unleash terror in Pahalgam.
Pointing out to security lapses, sources said that a large gathering of tourists, estimated to be around 1,000 to 2,000 people, was left unmanned by personnel either from the Army, CAPFs and local police. Victims said that armed terrorists reached there, did head hunting, and fired indiscriminately for about 20 minutes at tourists enjoying from across the country and outside their holidays.
Sources in the local police said that it appeared that terrorists had done recce of the place since they were aware of the timing of daily domination exercise carried out jointly by Army, CRPF and J&K police in Pahalgam.
It started at 9 am every day from Pahalgam and terrorists, dressed in comaflouge outfit, chose a time for the attack knowing very well that security forces will not be around, sources in local police stated. The sounds of the burst fire from automatic rifles including AK47 appeared as if firing practise is going on at the adjacent firing range of the Army.
The attack was also similar to the Hamas massacre of jews enjoying a music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Among the deceased are officers from Intelligence Bureau, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and UP police, sources stated.
The 26 deceased are, Sushil Nanthyal, Syed Adil Hussain, Hemant Suhas Joshi, Vinay Narwal — a young just married Navy officer, Atul Srikant Moni, Neeraj Udhwani, Bitan Adhikari, Sudeep Neupane, Subham Dwivedi, Prashant Kumar Satpathi, Manish Ranjan (a section officer of IB posted at SIB Hyderabad), N Rama Chandra, Sanjay Laxman Lali, Dinesh Agarwal, Samir Guhar, Dilip Dasali, J Sachandra Moli, Madhusadan Somi Setty, Santosh Jaghda, Manjunath Rao, Kastuba Ganvotay, Bharat Bhushan, Sumit Parmar, Yatesh Parmar, Tagehalying (a corporal of Indian Air Force), and Shaileshbhai H Himmatbhai Kalathai.
Published on April 23, 2025