On April 23, 2025, India faced its deadliest attack on civilians in two decades. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, inside a resort, at least 26 Indian people were killed in an anti-India rebellion held by a militant group. During that time, the resort held 1,000 tourists and 300 local service providers in Basiran Valley. When the three gunmen entered, they separated the men from the women and children, proceeding to ask the men for their names and asking them to recite Islamic verses. Those who didn’t were shot at close range. According to a security official, women and children were spared.
Asavari Jagdale is one of the many victims and affected family members of this attack. She and her family hid in a nearby tent with other tourists when the shooting first started, hiding from the heavily armed attackers who roamed around the grasslands and fired 60 shots of ammunition. When the militants reached their tent, they asked her father, Santosh Jangdale, to come out and recite an Islamic verse. However, he failed to do so, and the gunmen fired three bullets into him, and then fired four to five bullets into Asavari’s uncle. Another member of the attack, Debasish Bhattacharyya, a Hindu teacher, explained that since he was familiar with Islamic verses, he followed along as people around him chanted the verses. When reflecting on what happened, Bhattacharyya shared, “I knew the words and, at that moment, it was probably the only way to save our lives. Those who failed were killed.” After chanting the verses, the gunmen left, allowing the remaining survivors of the Kashmir attack to flee and trek through a forest for two hours to survive.
The attack has been claimed by a previously unknown militant group, which called itself the Kashmir Resistance. Many U.N. speakers, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack, stressing that “attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances.” Speakers like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Kashmir’s religious cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, U.S. President JD Vance, U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Secretary of State have all spoken out about the Kashmir attack, voicing their distaste for the attack, and standing with India against the militant group.
Kashmir is a territory that belongs to both India and Pakistan. Ever since India’s partition and the creation of Pakistan after both countries gained independence from the British in 1947, the two nuclear-armed neighbors have remained rivals ever since. Due to rising tensions and violence between Hindus and Muslims in India, the country was established as a Hindu-majority state, and Pakistan was established to be a Muslim-majority state. However, during the partition, terror groups would chase people out of their villages, hoping to gain more control for their own side. Many were driven out of their homes by communal violence, which began with the 1946 Calcutta Killings, where around 2,000 people died. During the relocation, between 200,000 and one million people are estimated to have been killed or died of disease in refugee camps. Even after the relocation and partition, tensions still remained between the two countries, and India and Pakistan have repeatedly fought over who controls Kashmir. In the past, Kashmir had a vast Muslim majority but a Hindu head, Hari Singh, making both sides want to claim complete control of the province. The two countries fought wars over Kashmir in 1947-1948 and 1965, and then clashed in the 1999 Kargil crisis.
In the end, Indian troops took two-thirds of the territory and Pakistan seized the Northern remainder, leaving the Eastern parts of Kashmir to China in the 1950s. Today, Pakistan demands a referendum to decide the status of the province, but India has refused, arguing that by voting in successive Indian state and national elections, Kashmiris have already confirmed their accession to India. When Pakistan cited UN resolutions in favor of a UN-run referendum, India stressed the importance of the Agreement of 1972, which bound the neighbors to solve the problem state-to-state.
While militant groups have attacked Kashmir numerous times in the past, the last attack, excluding Wednesday, was in 2000, when at least 35 civilians were shot and killed during Bill Clinton’s visit. India has accused Pakistan of fomenting violence against Kashmir multiple times, but Pakistan has denied all allegations. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels, and government forces have been killed in the conflict, causing the Indian government to enforce changes. In 2019, the government revoked Kashmir’s semiautonomous status, imposing security measures to reduce civil liberties and media freedoms. While this decision has brought controversy, the region has increased in security and stability.
After the attack on Wednesday, India immediately linked it to Pakistan. Following the accusation, India announced a string of punitive measures to penalize Pakistan, downgrading diplomatic ties, suspending a crucial water-sharing treaty for the Indus River, and revoking all visas issued to Pakistani nationals. Then, India announced that it would allow any Pakistani nationals to leave the country by the end of the week. Pakistan swiftly denied India’s accusations, calling the measures “irresponsible.” To retaliate, Pakistan cancelled all visas for Indian nationals, suspended India, including from third countries, and closed its airports to all Indian airplanes. Addressing India’s decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty, which was brokered by the World Bank in 1960, Pakistan warned that any attempt to stop or divert the flow of the water would be taken as an “act of war.”
From supporting agriculture and hydropower in the country with 240 million people, the treaty is essential to Pakistan, and the country even described it as a “vital national interest.” Previously surviving two wars between India and Pakistan, the Indus Water Treaty governs the sharing of water from the Indus River system, giving India control over eastern rivers Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas, and Pakistan control over western rivers Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus, which all flow through the Kashmir region. Already suffering from a drought and declining rainfall, many Pakistani farmers worry for their agriculture, since the treaty’s water ensures for 80% of Pakistani farms. This leads farmer Homla Thakhur to explain that many will, “die of hunger.” Pakistan warned that breaking the treaty could result in the suspension of the Simla Agreement, which is a significant peace treaty signed after the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Under the agreement, both countries established the Line of Control, which divided Kashmir between the countries and forced both countries to settle their differences through negotiation over violence.
Tensions took a turn for the worse on April 27, when Pakistani security forces killed 54 militants overnight who attempted to cross into the country from Afghanistan. After looking through intelligence reports, the military said that they suggested that the militants were “Khwarji,” a term used by the government to describe the Pakistani Taliban. Pointing out the timing, the military said that the infiltration attempt came “at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan, and said that the insurgents were sent by their “foreign masters.” In recent months, Pakistan has already witnessed a spike in violence, mainly from the Pakistani Taliban, which allies itself with the Afghan Taliban.
As regional tensions escalate, the aftermath of the Kashmir Attack serves as a flashpoint for broader geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan. While both nations exchange accusations and retaliatory measures, the risk of further instability in Kashmir remains high. The suspension of the Indus Water Treaty has fueled widespread fears of potential military escalation between the two countries.
Written by Claire Liu
