The Pahalgam Attack and the India–Pakistan Clash
Gunmen kill 26 people, almost all of them tourists, in a meadow near Pahalgam; India strikes Pakistan, and the two nuclear-armed neighbours fight four days of missile, drone and artillery battles before a ceasefire.
- Pahalgam terror attack: CM Omar hails ponywallah who died trying to save tourists — The Tribune, The Tribune (Chandigarh) (2025)
- Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace — Sumantra Bose, Harvard University Press (2003)
On 22 April 2025, gunmen opened fire on visitors at the Baisaran meadow above Pahalgam, a popular resort in south Kashmir, killing 26 people. Survivors said the attackers singled out Hindu men. Among the dead was Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a local pony operator, killed while trying to wrest a rifle from one of the gunmen; Chief Minister Omar Abdullah attended his funeral. The Resistance Front, which India regards as a front for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, first claimed the attack and then denied it.
- Pahalgam terror attack: CM Omar hails ponywallah who died trying to save tourists — The Tribune, The Tribune (Chandigarh) (2025)
- Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and expelled Pakistani diplomats. On the night of 6–7 May it struck targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, saying they were militant camps; Pakistan said civilians were killed. Days of drone, missile, air and artillery exchanges followed, the most serious fighting between the two countries in decades, before a ceasefire on 10 May. Each side claimed victory.
- Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Pahalgam terror attack: CM Omar hails ponywallah who died trying to save tourists — The Tribune, The Tribune (Chandigarh) (2025)
A Pakistan-backed terrorist attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy The Resistance Front, aimed at communal division. India's "Operation Sindoor" struck terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and India put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. Any future attack would be treated as an act of war.
- Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Pahalgam terror attack: CM Omar hails ponywallah who died trying to save tourists — The Tribune, The Tribune (Chandigarh) (2025)
Pakistan denied any involvement and called for a neutral investigation. It said India's strikes killed civilians, including at mosques, and that its forces responded in self-defence, shooting down Indian aircraft. It called the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty an act of war.
- Pakistan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
The killing of guests in Kashmir was a shameful crime that went against Kashmiri tradition and hurt Kashmiris themselves. At the same time, many feared collective punishment, and families along the Line of Control bore the brunt of the shelling.
- Pahalgam terror attack: CM Omar hails ponywallah who died trying to save tourists — The Tribune, The Tribune (Chandigarh) (2025)
Why it matters today
The massacre struck at the tourism that had become a symbol of "normal" Kashmir and a lifeline for thousands of Kashmiri families. Kashmiris held protests and shutdowns in grief and anger, and mourned a local pony man who died trying to stop the killers. Yet Kashmiri students and traders elsewhere in India faced harassment, and shelling along the Line of Control killed civilians on both sides, reminding Kashmiris that they live on a front line.