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Express Tribune
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Hindu pilgrimage begins in Pahalgam
Indian security personnel stand guard as Hindu pilgrims await their registration ahead of the the annual Amarnath pilgrimage © Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP Hindus began a vast month-long pilgrimage in the Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, with many of the faithful starting from near the site where a deadly April attack triggered conflict with Pakistan. Last year, half a million devotees took part in the Amarnath pilgrimage to a sacred ice pillar located in a cave in the forested Himalayan hills above the town of Pahalgam. Pahalgam is the site where gunmen on April 22 killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists. New Delhi said the gunmen were backed by Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected — triggering a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures that escalated into a four-day conflict. It was the worst standoff by the nuclear-armed nations since 1999, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, before a May 10 ceasefire.
Express Tribune
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
India ramps up security in Pahalgam as month-long pilgrimage begins
Indian security personnel stand guard as Hindu pilgrims await their registration ahead of the the annual Amarnath pilgrimage © Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP Listen to article Hindu devotees began on Thursday a month-long pilgrimage in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), with many of the faithful starting from near the site in Pahalgam where a deadly attack triggered conflict with Pakistan in April. India has ramped up security for the event, deploying 45,000 troops with high-tech surveillance tools overseeing the gruelling trek to reach the high-altitude cave, dedicated to the Hindu deity of destruction Shiva. 'We have multi-layered and in-depth security arrangements so that we can make the pilgrimage safe and smooth for the devotees,' said VK Birdi, police chief for the Muslim-majority territory. Last year, half a million devotees took part in the Amarnath pilgrimage to a sacred ice pillar located in a cave in the forested Himalayan hills above the town of Pahalgam. Pahalgam is the site in IIOJK where gunmen on April 22 killed 26 people, mostly tourists. India immediately blamed Pakistan for the incident, despite providing no public evidence. Pakistan has strongly denied involvement and called for an independent investigation. Read: Pahalgam: Quad avoids blaming Pakistan Tensions further escalated in the early hours of May 7, when missile strikes hit six cities in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), destroying a mosque and killing dozens of civilians, including women, children and the elderly. In a swift military response, Pakistan's armed forces shot down Indian warplanes, including three Rafale jets, widely regarded as a key asset of the Indian Air Force. Over the following two days, India launched waves of Israeli-made drones, which were also neutralised by Pakistan's military. The confrontation intensified again in the early hours of May 10, when India targeted several Pakistani airbases with missile strikes. In retaliation, Pakistan launched Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, damaging Indian military installations, including missile storage sites, airbases and other strategic targets. It was the worst standoff by the nuclear-armed nations since 1999, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, before a ceasefire came into effect on May 10. 'Not afraid' Pilgrim Muneshwar Das Shashtri, who travelled from Uttar Pradesh state, told AFP 'there is no fear of any kind'. 'Our army is standing guard everywhere. No one can raise a finger towards us,' he said. At Pahalgam, soldiers have turned a tented base camp into a fortress encircled by razor wire. Troops in newly deployed armoured cars, or from gun positions behind sandbags, keep a close watch – efforts boosted by facial recognition cameras. 'High-quality surveillance cameras have been installed at all major points along the route,' said Manoj Sinha, the Indian-appointed top administrator for IIOJ&K. All pilgrims must be registered and travel in guarded vehicle convoys, until they start out to walk. Camouflaged bunkers have been erected in the forests along the route, where dozens of makeshift kitchens provide free food. Electronic radio cards pinpoint their location. Pilgrims can take several days to reach the cave, perched at 3,900 metres (12,800 feet) high, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) uphill from the last easily motorable track. 'Whatever the attack that was carried out here, I am not afraid. I have come to get a glimpse of baba (the ice formation)' said Ujwal Yadav, 29, from India's Uttar Pradesh state, undertaking his first pilgrimage to the shrine. 'Such are the security arrangements here that no one can be hurt.' Sinha has said that 'public confidence is returning', but admits that pilgrim registration had dipped by 10% this year. Once a modest, little-known ritual, attended by only a few thousand mainly local devotees, the pilgrimage has grown since an armed insurgency erupted in 1989. Read more: Pakistan slams India at UNGA over human rights abuses, state terrorism Freedom fighters in IIOJ&K have said the pilgrimage is not a target, but have warned they would act if it is used to assert Hindu dominance. In 2017, millitants attacked a pilgrim bus, killing 11 people. The gunmen who carried out the April 22 killings remain at large, despite the manhunt by security forces in IIOJ&K where India has half a million soldiers permanently deployed. On June 22, India's National Investigation Agency said two men had been arrested from the Pahalgam area who they said had 'provided food, shelter and logistical support' to the gunmen. Indian police have issued wanted notices for three of the gunmen, two of whom they claim were Pakistani citizens.
IOL News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
India and Pakistan: a history of armed conflict
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the military "operational freedom" to respond to a deadly attack in Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on arch-rival Pakistan. Image: Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier in Kashmir on Wednesday in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The latest crisis erupted after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival, with deaths subsequently reported on both sides. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed. Islamabad rejects the charge. The two sides have fought multiple conflicts -- ranging from skirmishes to all-out war -- since their bloody partition in 1947. Indian Border Security Force soldiers stand guard near the India-Pakistan Wagah border post, about 35kms from Amritsar on May 7, 2025. Long-running tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan soared on May 7 after New Delhi launched deadly strikes at Pakistani territory. Image: Narinder NANU / AFP - 1947: Partition Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947 with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others. Kashmir's monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule. After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India's help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries. A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir. - 1965: Kashmir Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir. Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States. - 1971: Bangladesh Pakistan deploys troops in 1971 to suppress an independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947 as East Pakistan. An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India. India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh. - 1989-90: Kashmir Demonstrators burn a banner with picture of India's national flag and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an anti-India protest in Multan on May 6, 2025. Pakistan conducted a second missile test and India ordered civil defence drills in an escalating stand-off over contested Kashmir that the UN said on May 5 has brought the two nations to the brink of war. Image: Shahid Saeed MIRZA / AFP An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades. India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training. - 1999: Kargil Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains. Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict. At least 1,000 people are killed over 10 weeks. - 2019: Kashmir A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama. India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp. One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India. AFP
IOL News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Fearing Indian police, Kashmiris scrub 'resistance' tattoos
Basit Bashir, a tattoo removal artist, uses a laser machine to remove tattoos from the arm of a resident in his clinic in Srinagar. Image: Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP Thousands in Indian-administered Kashmir with "resistance tattoos," including assault rifles inked to oppose New Delhi's authority, have been lining up to scrub them from their bodies, fearing police retribution after a deadly attack on tourists last week. Basit Bashir receives up to 100 people, mostly men, every day at his laser clinic in the main city of Srinagar, hovering swiftly over designs ranging from AK-47 rifles to Islamic symbols such as a crescent moon. "I have safely removed AK-47 and similar type tattoos from the arms and necks of more than 1,000 young people using laser," Bashir told AFP at his clinic in the old quarter of Srinagar as he blasted high-intensity light pulses to break up the ink. Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, with both governing the disputed territory separately and claiming it in its entirety. That long-running conflict has shot back to attention after gunmen targeting tourists carried out the deadliest attack on civilians in a quarter of a century in the Himalayan territory, killing 26 men on April 22 in Pahalgam. Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation. India blames Pakistan and, while Islamabad denies any role, troops from the nuclear-armed neighbours have repeatedly fired at each other across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir. "After Pahalgam, we have seen a rise in the number of people with a crescent or AK-47 tattoos coming in for removal," 28-year-old Bashir said. One young man came in this week with an AK-47 tattoo after friends told him it was "better to get it removed" since the situation was "very precarious", he said. Basit Bashir, a tattoo removal artist, uses a laser machine to remove tattoos from the arm of a resident in his clinic in Srinagar. Image: Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ 'Fearful young' In Indian-controlled Kashmir, body tattoos have been a form of political expression, like graffiti, since an armed rebellion against Indian rule erupted in 1989. Rebel groups — largely crushed in recent years — demand Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. But deeply held anti-India sentiment has remained. Many who grew up during the violent uprising had their bodies inked with symbols expressing not just resentment towards Indian rule but also their religious identity. Bashir, the laser technician, said he initially started erasing tattoos depicting Muslim religious symbols. "They wanted the tattoos removed, believing it was prohibited in Islam, and wanted to be buried as pure after death," he said. But others with pro-independence slogans started coming in big numbers after 2019, when New Delhi cancelled the region's partial autonomy and clamped down on dissent and protests. Thousands were arrested and civil liberties were drastically curtailed. Police and security forces increased surveillance following the 2019 change in the territory's status. They punished political expression hinting at resistance or a reference to the disputed nature of Kashmir in any form — even on social media. "I started getting a stream of fearful young men and women seeking their tattoos to be safely removed," Bashir said. On some days more than 150 people turned up at his clinic, prompting him to buy a new machine for a million rupees (nearly $12,000). "Many of them told me their stories of being harassed by police for their tattoos showing any anti-India sentiment", he said.
IOL News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Grief turns to fear in Kashmir as Indian cracks down
Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard along a street in Srinagar this week. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the military "operational freedom" to respond to a deadly attack in Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on arch-rival Pakistan. Image: Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP Shams Irfan, Karishma Mehrotra The armored vehicles came at dusk as families were preparing dinner. Two days earlier, gunmen had killed 26 people, most of them tourists, in a remote Himalayan meadow. Now hundreds of Indian soldiers descended on this tiny village, hunting for suspects. They encircled the home of Adil Hussain Thoker, one of the militants accused of carrying out the attack, forcing villagers into the surrounding rice fields as darkness fell. At midnight, a thunderous blast ruptured the silence - 'the earth shook beneath our feet,' recalled one local, speaking like others in this story on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. The two-story brick and wood house was reduced to rubble. Indian officials say they are carrying out controlled demolitions of homes where explosives have been found. Thoker's family members vehemently deny the charge and say they haven't seen or heard from Adil since 2018. Demonstrators shout slogans and burn an effigy of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an anti-India protest in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, this week. Pakistan's military shot down an Indian drone along the de facto Kashmir border, a week after the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested region in years. Image: Sajjad Qayyum / AFP 'What happened in Pahalgam is gruesome, and no sane person would endorse such an act,' said a young boy in Guree, referring to the deadly militant attack on April 22. 'But why punish civilians?' That question encapsulates a familiar dread in Kashmir, where people have long felt trapped between India and Pakistan - which each administer different parts of the Muslim-majority territory but claim full ownership - and between militancy and militarization. Kashmiris say they are cornered by a cruel paradox: forced to publicly condemn the violence even as they are made to bear the cost. In the face of an intensifying Indian security crackdown, grief for the dead is hardening into fear. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters Wednesday that militants had 'cross-border linkages,' a reference to archrival Pakistan. Islamabad has condemned the killings and rejected claims of involvement. 'Kashmiris now and then have always realized that they are the biggest victim - both of the terrorism and the militarization,' said Anuradha Bhasin, managing editor of the Kashmir Times. 'Yet they are always put on the dock and asked to prove their innocence.' Activists from Social Unity Center of India shout slogans to condemn the recent attack on tourists at Pahalgam, during a rally in Kolkata on this week. Image: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP A 'people's peace movement' As news broke of the attack, the deadliest on Indian civilians in more than a decade, political leaders here issued swift condemnations. Mosques held prayers for the victims. Local associations organized peace marches and candlelight vigils. Storefronts shuttered, traffic fell silent and schools were closed. Kashmir's leading newspapers printed black front pages. Unlike during past strikes and shutdowns that targeted the Indian government, the outcry this time was directed at the attackers. 'It's not for our daily bread that we cry, it is for our humanity,' one protester told journalists. 'They must be caught and given the strictest punishment,' another said to the cameras. 'There seems to be an emergence of a spontaneous, genuine people's peace movement,' said Haseeb Drabu, a former Kashmiri finance minister. There has been little room for open dissent since 2019, when the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir's semiautonomous status, jailed scores of activists and journalists, and imposed a months-long communications blackout - sealing the valley off from the world. In the years since, rights groups have documented widespread abuses by Indian security forces, including arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings. The Indian government denies the allegations. Many Kashmiris saw the attack in Pahalgam as a calculated assault on the region's identity. An editorial in the Greater Kashmir newspaper said it threatened to 'unravel years of progress,' especially when it came to the resurgent tourism industry, touted by the Indian government as symbolic of a new, more peaceful era. 'Tourism has been pushed as a political solution in the absence of adequate security arrangements,' said Nitasha Kaul, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Westminster. 'Those in charge have displayed a callous complacency that suggests they bought into their own superficial rhetoric of 'normalcy.'' Abdul Wahid Wani, leader of an association of pony handlers that helps tourists explore the local scenery on horseback, was among the first on the scene after last week's attack. The carnage he saw is still with him, he said, recalling a newlywed forced to mourn her husband on their honeymoon. He called for 'severe punishment so that generations to come will learn from it.' But, he added, 'those who are not at fault should not be entangled in the oppressive punishment.' Yet there are already signs of 'collective punishment,' Bhasin said. Thoker's former residence was among nine homes destroyed by Indian security forces, and at least 2,000 people have been detained, according to local reports. At least 60 house raids have been carried out - some trailed by television cameras - and new military checkpoints have been set up across the region. The gunmen accused of carrying out the attack have so far eluded capture. A statement from police in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir, said officers were working to 'dismantle terror-supporting infrastructure' by seizing weapons, documents and digital evidence. 'Punish the guilty, show them no mercy but don't let innocent people become collateral damage,' Jammu and Kashmir's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, posted Sunday on X. Kashmiris 'felt the need to convey a message to the entire world that Kashmir does not endorse civilian killings, but now they can't protest their own pain,' said Gowhar Geelani, the author of 'Kashmir: Rage and Reason.'
