Like a storm Witnesses describe deadly Kashmir attack

PAHALGAM, India - Men were methodically targeted on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir when gunmen opened fire on tourists, an eyewitness told AFP, in the worst attack on civilians in years.

At least 24 people were killed in the attack that happened in the summer retreat of Pahalgam, which lies about 90km by road from the key city of Srinagar, a senior police official told AFP.

“I cannot say how many, but the militants came out of the forest near an open small meadow and started firing,” an eyewitness, who provides ponies for tourists, told AFP.

The witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity as authorities barred them from speaking, said the gunmen “very clearly spared women and kept shooting at men”.

“Sometimes single shot and sometimes many bullets,” they said. “It was like a storm.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi decried the “heinous act”, pledging that the attackers will be brought to justice.

A woman named Pallavi, from India’s southern Karnataka state, said the attack “felt like a bad dream” as her husband was killed in front of her and their son.

They were attacked by three to four people, India Today quoted her as saying.

“I told them – kill me too... One of them said, ‘I won’t kill you. Go tell this to Modi.’”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989.

They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.

The killings come a day after Mr Modi met US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who is on a four-day tour of India.

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