3 min readNew DelhiApr 23, 2025 01:14 PM IST
First published on: Apr 23, 2025 at 11:39 AM IST
A day after the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khwaja Asif claimed Wednesday that they have nothing to do with the incident in which at least 25 tourists were killed and several others were injured.
Indian officials, however, are not convinced by Pakistan’s denial since the initial probe has suggested the presence of foreigners as part of the group of militants who opened fire at the civilians.
At least 25 tourists and a Valley resident were shot dead Tuesday at a meadow near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in the deadliest terror attack on civilians in the country since the Mumbai 26/11 shootings.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with it. We reject terrorism in all its forms and everywhere,” Asif told a Pakistan TV channel on the Pahalgam attack.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives in an attack in Anantnag district… We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Delhi was sceptical about Islamabad’s remarks as The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror outfit, was said to have claimed responsibility for the attack.
An official in the security establishment has said that the initial probe after recording the statement of victims and eyewitnesses revealed that four terrorists, including two believed to be “foreign nationals”, came in camouflage attire.
The Pahalgam attack comes a week after Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir’s statement that Kashmir is Islamabad’s “jugular vein”, which was met with a sharp riposte from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Addressing the Overseas Pakistani Convention in Islamabad last week, General Munir said: “Our stance is absolutely clear, it was our jugular vein, it will be our jugular vein, we will not forget it. We will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle.”
“Our religions are different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation theory that was laid there. We are two nations, we are not one nation,” Munir had said in one of his strongest statements in the recent past.
Responding to questions on Munir’s remarks, MEA’s official spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said last Thursday: “How can anything foreign be in a jugular vein? This is a Union Territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by that country.”
Sources said that the Indian government was looking at all strategic and security options, as was evident from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s quick meeting, just after touchdown in Delhi airport. He met with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who had not travelled to Saudi Arabia, who briefed the Prime Minister and NSA Ajit Doval and External Affairs minister S Jaishankar about the situation in Kashmir.
Armymen patrol in armored vehicle near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists visiting Pahalgam, Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo) 
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