India’s defense minister yesterday vowed a swift response to those who carried out and planned the Kashmir region’s worst attack on civilians in years.
“Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear,” Indian Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh said in a speech in New Delhi, a day after shooters killed 26 men at a tourist hot spot in the contested Himalayan region.
“We won’t just reach those people who carried out the attack. We will also reach out to those who planned this from behind the scenes on our land,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Singh did not identify those he believes are responsible for the killings, but said that “India’s government will take every step that may be necessary and appropriate.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in the Muslim-majority region where rebels have waged an insurgency since 1989.
They are seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a smaller part of the Kashmir region and, like India, claims it in full.
Photo: AP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that those responsible for the “heinous act” will “be brought to justice.”
Modi was later yesterday set to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting with top security chiefs.
“Their evil agenda will never succeed,” Modi said in a statement shortly after the attack. “Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger.”
Nuclear-armed archrivals India and Pakistan have long accused each other of backing forces to destabilize the other, and New Delhi says Islamabad backs the people behind the insurgency. Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination.
Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar yesterday offered his “condolences to the near ones of the deceased.”
Analyst Michael Kugelman said the attack posed a “very serious risk of a new crisis between India and Pakistan, and probably the most serious risk of a crisis since the brief military conflict that happened in 2019.”
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the attack had been “much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians” in the past few years.
A hospital list verified by police recorded 26 men who were killed on Tuesday afternoon when gunmen burst out of forests at a popular tourist spot in Pahalgam and raked crowds of visitors with automatic weapons.
All those killed were listed as residents of India except one man from Nepal.
In a separate incident in Kashmir at Baramulla yesterday, the army killed two people after a “heavy exchange of fire,” saying the shooters were part of an “infiltration bid” crossing the contested frontier from Pakistan.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS