Pahalgam attack: Why the buck stops with the Modi government

A day after 26 people were gunned down on the Baisaran meadow, Pahalgam town on Wednesday wore a deathly look as tourists fled the destination and the security forces continued their search for the attackers in the nearby woods.

The terrorists targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion, the police said. With the exception of Syed Adil Hussain, a labourer from Anantnag district, who earned his livelihood ferrying tourists to the site on a horse, and an Air Force employee from Arunachal Pradesh, all the dead were Hindu men. Hussain’s family told Scroll that the attackers had shot him three times after “he confronted one of the militants who had shot dead a tourist”.

The attack is a major setback to claims of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party that terrorism ended in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 after its special status under the Constitution was abrogated and it was divided into two union territories.

Opposition leaders have claimed that the attack was the result of a security lapse and demanded accountability from the Union home minister.

But a section of pro-BJP social media handles have pointed out that the terror strike – the deadliest since the Pulwama attack in 2019 – has taken place after an...

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