SRINAGAR: The business establishments across Kashmir are closed, and the people from the region have assembled near the historic Ghanta Ghar in Srinagar. They are protesting, but for a different reason than in the past.
On Tuesday (April 22) afternoon, vacation for many tourists from mainland India became a day of horrible memory and of mourning after gunmen appeared from the nearby forests in the meadow of Baisaran in south Kashmir's town of Pahalgam and killed at least 26 people including a Kashmiri horseman.
The firsthand visuals captured by locals and some tourists showed thousands of people running for their lives as sounds of automatic rifles being fired reverberated across the resort.
Local people including tour guides, horsemen, and stall owners were seen assuring the horrified tourists, who were crying over the dead bodies of their loved ones, running for their lives, or crying over their wounds, that they (the locals) were with them (tourists) and won’t leave them alone.
According to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the horseman, Syed Adil Hussain Shah of Anantnag, who was killed in the attack, tried to disrupt the attack by attempting to snatch one assailant’s rifle.
Hours after the news of the attack spread, a video of a tourist lady claiming that the attackers confirmed the identity of the men before shooting them dead were widely shared by many mainstream media houses and social media users from mainland India. The gruesome attack was framed as communal.
War Cries & Revenge
Within hours of the attack, calls for “revenge”, “Israel like retaliation”, “Flatten Pahalgam” accompanied with hashtags including, #Pahalgamattack #ActlikeIsrael, #Indiawantsrevenge started trending on social media, particularly on X, formerly Twitter.
“How is this attack on Hindus in Pahalgam not a repeat of what Palestinians did to Israelis on Oct 7. Will Modi and Shah avenge it like Israel,” wrote one Yogendra Singh Bundela on X.
“Flatten Anantnag and Pahalgam,” wrote another X user.
Another X user, Deepu, saw the attack as “ethnic cleansing of Hindus and that it should be answered with ruthless vengeance.”
More than two dozen killed in Pahalgam, “India is still the fastest growing economy in the world, but not more developed than Israel,” wrote an X user Vishal.
“India needs to act like Israel, direct and indirect terrorism must be eliminated from the roots. Make a list of intellectual secular terrorists and start eliminating one by one. Restrict freedom of speech,” wrote another X user while replying to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s post about the Pahalgam attack.
Another user urged the government to do more than talking “by acting like Israel.”
“We should learn from Israel what to do if someone attacks us. We want revenge,” he wrote.
Delhi-based television channels were busy with calls for war with Pakistan and boycott of Kashmir and Kashmiris.
One former Major from the Indian army said on a national channel, “terrorism cannot stop until the corpses of the Pakistani army are scattered.”
Major Gaurav Arya, known for his anti-Kashmiri and anti-Muslim statements, also said that “airstrikes won’t be a solution this time, and that India should not look to kill militants, but attack the headquarters of the Pakistan army.”
One channel carried the hashtag #WeWantRevenge as its masthead during the debate.
On Twitter Space (a feature of the X social media platform wherein people speak), one speaker said that he “should be given a gun so he can kill as many Muslims in his neighbourhood as possible.”
An X user shared the screen recording of the space while tagging Delhi Police and requesting for action. No action from the Delhi Police has been reported till now.
Solidarity Messages From Kashmir
Meanwhile in the troubled valley, traders, drivers, hoteliers, students, media persons, and others unequivocally condemned the attack even as candlelight protests were held near the iconic Ghanta Ghar.
Since Wednesday morning, different groups both political and non-political took out solidarity protests and condemned the attack while assuring tourists that Kashmiris will not let them be harmed.
While public transport was largely off the roads on Wednesday, auto rickshaws were seen lined up near the clocktower, with “free rides to airport and railways” pasted on their windscreens.
“We are helping in the best way we can,”” said an auto driver, who wished not to be named. “I don’t want my name highlighted for this meagre help,” he said.
Usually counted in the low-income strata, the auto drivers didn’t hesitate to come forward and provide free services.
Around a kilometer away from the Ghanta Ghar, the tourist cabs near the Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) were offering similar assistance to the tourists, who were exiting early due to the attack.
“We will put our lives on the line and save you, as many of our countrymen did at Baisaran, like the pony operator Adil Hussain, or like Sajad Bhat who carried one traumatised victim on his back. We will make sure you are safe,” shouted Kashmiri protesters near Ghanta Ghar.
Kashmir’s social media including Facebook, X, Instagram, and WhatsApp were swarmed with the solidarity messages, and condemnations of the attack.
“This hurts us beyond our imagination. Our years of reputation, of making people understand that we are not terrorists, goes into vain. Not only in India, but the International players have too started to see us as terrorists,” wrote one Kashmiri on X.
Kashmir’s Sikh community also organised a solidarity protest in different parts of the valley and at the Gurdwara at Bhagat Srinagar.
“We are protesting to give out the message that a Kashmiri is not a terrorist and that we are not inhumane,” said Manpreet Kaur, a Sikh student who led the protests inside the Gurdwara.
Kaur said, that their homes and religious places were open to tourists. “The free kitchens at Gurdwara are open too.”
Kashmiri Students Harassed
On Wednesday late evening, a video of a man from Hindu Raksha Dal (HRD), which as per its official website is a “patriotic body of persons sworn to defend the nation of Hindustan from foreigners and traitors”, was seen threatening Kashmiri Muslims living in Uttarakhand.
“The incident of Pahalgam has hurt us, we cannot explain it in words, but can do one thing, which HRD does well. HRD of Uttarakhand has decided that starting from Dehradun, if we see any Kashmiri Muslim from tomorrow, we will surely teach him a lesson.”
Another video of people from the same organization was shared widely with calls to force Kashmiri students in every institution to flee.
Soon after this, reports of Kashmiri students being harassed and beaten at different educational institutes in mainland India started to come.
“We have been receiving multiple distress calls from Kashmiri students in Dehradun. The students feel threatened and insecure in the aftermath of a video released by Hindu Raksha Dal, warning Kashmiri Muslim students to vacate,” J&K Students Association (JKSA) said in a statement on their official X-handle.
The J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he is in touch with governments of the states where the reports of Kashmiri students and traders being beaten are coming from. He said he is also in touch with his counterparts in these states and has requested them to take “extra care.”
On Thursday morning, a group of Kashmiri students from Chandigarh, several of them seen bandaged, bruised, and hurt, were seen appealing to the authorities in a video to protect them or bring them home.
“They have barged into our hostel rooms and thrashed us,” the students said.
The JKSA said that it has so far received eight reports of incidents wherein Kashmiri Muslim students have been thrashed by right-wing groups.
Following the disturbing reports and visuals of Kashmiri students being beaten, the J&K government’s Resident Commission in New Delhi, issued a helpline for the Kashmiri students feeling threatened.
A video from the Janipur area in Jammu was widely shared Thursday morning, wherein several groups were seen beating Kashmiri Muslims with sticks, until the police arrived and they fled from the spot.
Experts Call for Restraint
“The sensible thing is to ask the right questions now- what were the lapses, who is responsible for security, what policies are failing, who in the government is accountable and what are the lessons? Hyper rhetoric between one tragedy and next is not an answer,” wrote Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based Politics and International Relations Professor.
Dr Sheikh Showkat, a Srinagar-based political analyst believes that the attack could have various motives and one cannot jump at only one conclusion.
The attack, he said, may have something to do either with straining the Indo-Pak relations, or the local dynamics of J&K administration, “where the regional administration has been completely isolated from counter-insurgency and police operations.”
Dr Showkat said the attack would have a long-term effect. “The tourists have been given the impression that everything is okay in Kashmir. This attack questions that claim.”
He, however, added that no one must blame Kashmiris for the attack, and Indians should not direct their anger towards Kashmiris studying or working outside.
“The reports of attacks on students in various parts of the country make us anxious,” says Mohammad Usmaan, a student of History and International Relations in Srinagar.
“Kashmiris are always on the receiving end, whether a Kashmiri is jailed, or killed, or someone from outside is killed. It is Kashmir and its people who bear the brunt.”
“But I will do, what I should,” Usmaan said as he placed a placard of solidarity at Ghanta Ghar.
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