Pahalgam terror attack: What we know so far?

New Delhi: A group of terrorists attacked tourists at Pahalgam, about 100 km from Srinagar, at around 3 pm on Tuesday.
While official figures are yet to come, some news organisations claimed that over 25 people have been killed in the attack.

It is said that the terrorists descended from a mountain in Baisaran valley, popularly known as "mini Switzerland" due to its lush green meadows, and started firing at the tourists.

In the past, tourists had been attacked by the terrorists on few occasions. The last major attack on visitors took place in June last year, when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after a militant attack caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge in Reasi of Jammu district.

Prior to that in 2017, seven Hindu pilgrims, six of them women, were killed after their bus, returning from the Amarnath pilgrimage in Anantnag district, got caught in a gun battle between police and terrorists.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, spoke to union home minister Amit Shah and directed him to immediately rush to Kashmir.

According to a Reuters report, a little-known militant group called the "Kashmir Resistance" claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that over 85,000 "outsiders" had been settled in the region, spurring a "demographic change."

The government had earlier this month told the legislature that nearly 84,000 non-locals, from within India, were given domicile rights in Jammu and Kashmir in the last two years following the abrogation of Article 370 -- that gave a special status to the erstwhile state -- in August 2019. The move to give domicile rights to outsiders allows them to get jobs and buy land in the union territory.

Tuesday's terror attack came at a time when US Vice President JD Vance along with his family was on a four-day visit to India. He was in Rajasthan on Tuesday.