Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir – On Monday this week, Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir was a bustling tourist destination. Today, it’s a ghost town.
Suspected rebels killed at least 26 people on Tuesday in the picturesque tourist resort in the deadliest such attack in 25 years in Indian-administered Kashmir, raising fears of an escalation in India-Pakistan tensions.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a little-known armed group that emerged in the region in 2019, claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent years, armed rebels who are demanding Kashmir’s secession from India, have largely spared tourists from their attacks. Tuesday’s killings have changed that.
Along the Liddar River, which winds through the picturesque valley, all the hotels have closed, and the shops stand shuttered. The town, which draws millions of visitors each year, has emptied almost overnight.
“I was so busy yesterday morning, I didn’t even have time to speak to anyone,” Mushtaq Ahmad, 45, a restaurant owner, tells media. By Wednesday, he had been forced to close his restaurant, and now believes the outlook is bleak.
“We are condemned forever. I don’t think the industry will recover now,” he says.
Another hotelier, Arshad Ahmad, says he had been overwhelmed by customers this year. Now, that has all changed.
“All my 20 rooms were booked for the next month,” he says. “But everything changed overnight. All my customers left early this morning. They were sad, frightened, and terrified – and rightly so.”
Among the dead at Baisaran meadow, Pahalgam, a beauty spot favoured by tourists, was local Kashmiri pony rider and guide Adil Hussain Shah, 29, who lost his life while trying to protect people.
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