Terrorism must be uprooted, not selectively targeted. As long as organizations like LeT and JeM are allowed to survive, there can be no peace in Kashmir. As long as hatred and radicalization are cultivated across the border, no amount of dialogue can bring about lasting friendship.
The recent terrorist attack in Kashmir, which saw 26 innocent Hindu tourists slaughtered in cold blood, is an act of unspeakable savagery that must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. These men, women, and children had come to the beautiful valley of Kashmir to admire its famed natural beauty, to breathe its crisp mountain air, and to experience the peaceful joys of travel. Instead, they met a brutal and untimely death at the hands of mindless terrorists.
This heinous attack is not an isolated incident. It is part of a grim pattern that stretches back decades — a pattern of violence, fueled and orchestrated by Pakistan-based terrorist organizations, that has shattered countless lives in the once-tranquil state of Jammu and Kashmir.
A Blood-Stained Legacy
The roots of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir can be traced back to the late 1980s, when Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency began supporting and training Islamic militants to wage a “proxy war” against India. This calculated strategy was formalized under what Pakistan termed its policy of “bleeding India with a thousand cuts.”
Groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen, all with strong operational bases within Pakistan, became instruments of this deadly campaign. Over the years, these groups have been responsible for countless massacres, bombings, kidnappings, and attacks on civilians — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and people of every faith living in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), between 1990 and 2020 alone, more than 14,000 civilians have been killed in terror-related violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Thousands more have been injured, orphaned, or displaced. What began as a political problem was quickly poisoned into a brutal campaign of religious and ethnic cleansing.
One need only remember the 1990 Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits — one of the earliest mass tragedies in modern Kashmir. Over 100,000 Hindu Pandits were forced to flee their ancestral homes under threat of death from militants who declared that Kashmir must be “Islamized.” Thousands were killed, women were raped, and whole villages emptied out overnight. The trauma remains raw even today, decades later.
Subsequent decades have been littered with massacres targeting civilians:
The Wandhama massacre (1998), where 23 Kashmiri Hindus, including women and children, were brutally gunned down.
The Chittisinghpura massacre (2000), when 35 Sikhs were lined up and shot during the visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton to India.
The Amarnath Yatra attacks over the years, targeting Hindu pilgrims on their religious journey to the Amarnath cave shrine.
Numerous attacks on tourists, Bihari laborers, schoolteachers, and minority community members, each leaving a trail of heartbreak.
The recent killing of the Hindu tourists is thus another link in this blood-soaked chain. And yet, it is perhaps even more horrifying, because it underscores the sheer nihilism that terrorism has bred in Kashmir. What kind of inhuman mind sets out to kill innocent travelers, people whose only “crime” was to admire the beauty of Kashmir?
Pakistan’s Complicity Cannot Be Ignored
The involvement of Pakistan-based terrorist groups in these acts of horror is well-documented and has been acknowledged internationally. Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, where 166 people were killed, including foreign tourists, has been allowed to operate with impunity in Pakistan. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, was even seen addressing public rallies in Pakistan until international pressure forced token actions against him.
Similarly, Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group responsible for the Pulwama attack in 2019, where 40 Indian soldiers were killed, continues to function under various guises. Its leader, Masood Azhar, roams freely despite being designated a global terrorist by the United Nations.
How long can Pakistan feign ignorance? How long can it play the double game of professing peace while harboring the enemies of peace within its borders?
If Pakistan truly wishes for good neighborly relations, if it sincerely seeks to improve the lives of its own people — impoverished, deprived, and yearning for a better future — it must immediately and unequivocally dismantle the terror networks operating from its soil. Empty rhetoric about peace means nothing when bombs are being planted and bullets are being fired across the border.
War is Not the Answer — But Nor is Appeasement
India and Pakistan have already fought three full-scale wars — in 1947, 1965, and 1971 — and each has brought immense human suffering, economic hardship, and societal disruption. Even the limited Kargil conflict of 1999 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of young soldiers on both sides, leaving behind grieving families and shattered communities.
The economic cost of these conflicts is staggering. According to various estimates, the wars and ongoing military escalations have cost both nations hundreds of billions of dollars over the decades — money that could have been used to build schools, hospitals, roads, and better lives for ordinary citizens.
In Pakistan, where nearly 40% of the population lives below the poverty line, and in India, where millions still struggle for basic amenities, the insanity of pouring scarce resources into an arms race instead of human development is self-evident.
It is time for both nations — but especially Pakistan, which bears the heavier moral burden for harboring terrorists — to choose the path of wisdom over the path of madness.
Terrorism must be uprooted, not selectively targeted. As long as organizations like LeT and JeM are allowed to survive, there can be no peace in Kashmir. As long as hatred and radicalization are cultivated across the border, no amount of dialogue can bring about lasting friendship.
Let the People Live in Peace
Despite the wounds of history, the ordinary citizens of India and Pakistan share a common desire: to live in peace, to raise their children in safety, to hope for a better future. Trade, tourism, cultural exchanges, and cooperation can bring the two nations closer — but only if the guns are silenced and the bomb factories are dismantled.
The recent killing of Hindu tourists is not just a crime against India. It is a crime against humanity. It is a crime against the spirit of South Asia, against the dream of a region where diversity is celebrated rather than massacred.
We call upon the Pakistani leadership to act decisively, not just for India’s sake, but for its own. History will not forgive those who had a chance to stop the bloodshed and chose instead to remain silent.
We also call upon the international community — the United Nations, major powers, and human rights organizations — to hold Pakistan accountable for its continued sponsorship of terror. Diplomatic platitudes are not enough; concrete action is needed to end the cycle of violence.
Let this latest tragedy be the final wake-up call.
Let no more mothers mourn their children.
Let no more innocent blood stain the rivers of Kashmir.
Let India and Pakistan bury the hatreds of the past and build a new future — one of friendship, of shared prosperity, and of peace.
History is watching. The people are watching. And the martyrs — the innocent souls whose only dream was to live and to love — demand that we honor their memory not with more hatred, but with the triumph of humanity over barbarity.
(Prof. Indrajit S Saluja is the Chief Editor of The Indian Panorama. He can be reached at salujaindra@gmail.com)
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