New Delhi, Apr 22: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday left for Srinagar to take stock of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of a deadly terror attack on tourists at Pahalgam, official sources said. Shah headed for J-K soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him and asked him to visit the Union Territory, they said.
Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, who was in the national capital, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka and a few senior officials accompanied the home minister, who has left on a special flight from IGI airport here.
The home minister in a post on 'X said he had briefed the prime minister about the incident and held a meeting with the officials concerned via video conferencing.
"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 said. In Srinagar, Shah will hold an urgent security review meeting with all the agencies.
Multiple tourists were feared killed and at least 20 injured when terrorists opened fire in a picturesque meadow near Kashmir’s Pahalgam town, breaking the calm of a regular Tuesday afternoon with scores of people enjoying their day out.
The death toll could be more than 20, a high-ranking official indicated without getting into details. The attack, which comes as US Vice President J D Vance is visiting India, took place around 3 pm, the officials said.
The toll is still being ascertained, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said while describing the terror attack as "much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years".
More than 30 persons were killed and 60 others injured in a terror attack on Amarnath base camp in Pahalgam in 2000.
A year later, 13 persons were killed and 15 others injured in an attack on Amarnath pilgrims at Sheshnag while 11 persons were killed in another attack in 2002 in the Pahalgam area.
Eight pilgrims were killed in a terror attack in 2017 as they were on the way home from Amarnath shrine. A tourist couple from Rajasthan was injured in a firing incident by terrorists at Yannar in Pahalgam in May last year.
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