Jammu region has been put on high alert, and protests have broken out in several locations on Tuesday after the militant attack on tourists in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam earlier in the day.
The area where the attack took place is adjacent to Kishtwar district’s Chatroo area, where security forces and the police had on April 10-11 killed three militants, believed to be foreigners. A large quantity of arms, including M-4 and AK series rifles, ammunition and explosives were seized from them.
Expressing concern over the killing of tourists in Kashmir, the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the main organisation of traders and industrialists, has given a call for Jammu bandh on Wednesday.
While people in Doda town held a demonstration and burnt effigies late in the evening, the Kishtwar unit of Sanatan Dharam Sabha gave a call for bandh on Wednesday in protest against the attack.
In Jammu city’s Gujjar Nagar area, people from the Muslim community came out in large numbers, raising slogans against Pakistan. They described the attack on tourists as an attempt to damage the image of the Kashmiri people’s hospitable nature.
Bhaderwah’s Anjuman-e-Islamia president Riaz Ahmed Najar condemned the attack, describing it as a “murder of humanity”. He demanded stern action against those involved in the attack.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha also condemned the attack, saying: “Anti-terror ops launched to neutralise terrorists. Entire nation is angry & blood of our forces is boiling. I want to assure the nation that perpetrators of Pahalgam attack will have to pay a very very heavy price for their heinous act. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved families.”
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Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed shock and anguish over the attack, describing it as an “abomination”.
“This attack on our visitors is an abomination. The perpetrators of this attack are animals — inhuman and worthy of contempt. No words of condemnation are enough,” he said.
Sunil Sharma, senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the J&K Legislative Assembly, accused Pakistan of trying to create unrest in India. “It has been targeting the Hindu community in the Jammu region to create division in the region,” he said, adding that the harm inflicted is irreversible and expressing confidence that security forces would neutralise every culprit.
J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra also condemned the attack and accused the BJP of misleading the nation on the situation in Kashmir.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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