Web Desk (MNN); India’s counter-terrorism agency on Monday announced that it has filed charges against six individuals in connection with the deadly attack on tourists in India-occupied Kashmir earlier this year.
In a statement, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said its chargesheet also named the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and The Resistance Front (TRF) as organisations allegedly involved in planning and carrying out the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, where 26 tourists were killed.
According to the NIA, three of the accused were killed in an operation by Indian security forces in a forested area of occupied Kashmir several weeks after the incident, while two others are currently in Indian custody. The agency added that two local residents, identified as Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothatd, had been arrested in June on accusations of sheltering the attackers and have now been formally charged.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was outlawed by Pakistan in 2002 during the government of then military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The Resistance Front, a lesser-known group blamed by New Delhi for the attack, was recently designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
Following the Pahalgam incident, India accused Pakistan of involvement without presenting evidence, a charge Islamabad strongly rejected while calling for an independent and neutral probe. The diplomatic tensions escalated into a four-day military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in May.
In the wake of the conflict, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the formation of a high-level diplomatic delegation to visit key global capitals to present Pakistan’s position. Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was tasked with leading the outreach effort.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities launched a wide-ranging security crackdown across occupied Kashmir after the attack. More than 2,000 Kashmiris were detained, and several residential properties were demolished, according to local reports.
Arrests were reported from multiple districts, including Srinagar, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Islamabad, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam, further heightening concerns over the human rights situation in the region.
