Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Srinagar on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, following a terror attack that left at least 26 people dead in Pahalgam, South Kashmir. The victims include foreign nationals and an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official, according to a government source cited by The Hindu.
The IB official, Manish Ranjan on leave from his posting in Hyderabad was reportedly gunned down in front of his wife and children. Upon arrival, Shah was briefed on the security situation by Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat at the Srinagar airport. He is expected to visit the attack site in Pahalgam on Wednesday.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who was in Delhi during the attack, accompanied Shah to Srinagar. A high-level security review meeting continued late into Tuesday evening at the Raj Bhavan.
Before departing for Srinagar, Shah posted on social platform X: “Anguished by the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. My thoughts are with the family members of the deceased. Those involved in this dastardly act of terror will not be spared, and we will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences.”
Shah also informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently on an official visit to Saudi Arabia. The Prime Minister asked Shah to take immediate steps and personally assess the situation on the ground.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has claimed responsibility for the attack. TRF was formed in August 2019, soon after the revocation of Article 370, to avoid international scrutiny.
Security forces have launched joint search operations in and around the Baisaran meadow, where the incident occurred. The Indian Army confirmed coordinated efforts are underway to locate the perpetrators.
This attack comes shortly after Shah conducted a security review in Jammu and Kashmir on April 7-8. That review followed the March 27 incident in Kathua, Jammu, where four policemen were killed by a newly infiltrated group of terrorists. Two of those attackers were killed, while at least three remain at large.
While violence in the Kashmir Valley had reduced in recent years, since 2021 there have been renewed attempts to revive militancy in the Jammu region. The Pahalgam incident marks the deadliest civilian-targeted terror attack in the Valley since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.