• By Nidhi Giri
  • Wed, 23 Apr 2025 05:11 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Pahalgam Attack: A total of seven terrorists opened fire on tourists at the Baisaran Valley meadow in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on Tuesday, with four to five suspected to be from Pakistan. Shortly after the news of the attack broke out, an offshoot of the Pakistani-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Resistance Front, had claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Pakistan "distanced" itself from the incident and said "it has no connection with the terrorist attack on tourists". Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, while speaking to a Pakistani media, blamed India for sponsoring unrest within the neighbouring country. The attack on April 22 was one of the deadliest in the region in recent years, killing 26 people and leaving several others injured.

Eyewitness accounts and intelligence reports suggest that at least two of the attackers are suspected to be local militants. Their identities are yet to be firmly established, sources said, as per an Indian Express report.

“The Urdu that they (the foreign terrorists) spoke is spoken in certain parts of Pakistan… At least two local militants are suspected to be accompanying them but we don’t yet know which part of Kashmir they came from,” an officer from the security establishment told The Indian Express.

READ MORE: Pahalgam Attack: Gun Carnage By TRF Terrorists Leaves 26 Dead In Baisaran; All Men Among Deceased | Check List

The security forces on Wednesday released the sketches of three suspected terrorists involved in the ghastly attack. According to a report by news agency PTI, the three suspected terrorists, identified as Asif Fauji, Suleman Shah and Abu Talha, are all Pakistani nationals. The suspects have also been given code names -- Moosa, Yunus and Asif -- and were reportedly involved in previous terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch. The sketches were prepared with the help of survivors of the attack.

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Pakistan Has No Connection: Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif

"Pakistan has no connection with this. This is all home-grown, there are revolutions in different so-called states against India, not one, not two, but dozens, from Nagaland to Kashmir, in the south, in Chattisgarh, in Manipur. In all these places, there are revolutions against the Indian government," Asif told the Pakistani media. 

PM Modi Chairs High-Level Meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short his Saudi Arabia visit and returned to Delhi this morning, chaired a high-level meeting with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and other officials at the Palam airport upon his return.