Following a horrific terrorist assault in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to India ahead of schedule from Saudi Arabia and immediately chaired a top-level security meeting at New Delhi’s Palam airport.
Present at the briefing were National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, reflecting the seriousness and immediacy of the crisis at hand.
The mortal blow was struck on Tuesday in the picturesque Baisaran Valley, a favourite haunt near Pahalgam, taking 16 lives — tourists and an Intelligence Bureau man — and injuring many more.
There was chaos, witnesses described to agencies, when militants who had lain in wait in forests around reappeared and sprayed fire at random on civilians.
Initial reports suggest that The Resistance Front, a militant group with alleged connections to the proscribed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, took responsibility for the massacre.
Prime Minister Modi was attending the second India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council in Jeddah when the attack occurred. Due to the grim incident, he cut short his visit, skipping a planned state dinner and speech to the Indian diaspora so that he could return home promptly and oversee the national response.
In its aftermath, security has been reinforced across Jammu and Kashmir, especially in sensitive regions. Barbed wire barricades have been put in place, and vehicles are being thoroughly searched at strategic locations like Sarjeevan on Baramulla's Uri Nala.
To ensure no further threats, additional paramilitary personnel have been stationed in weak points.
In Udhampur district, a group of local organisations have called for a complete shutdown in protest, and sought accountability and swift justice for the victims.
The heinous act in Pahalgam has also sparked a deluge of condemnation from world leaders, who have condemned the attack and offered their support and solidarity to India.
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