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18-12-2025
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ SRINAGAR: India’s anti-terrorism agency on Monday charged militant Islamist groups based in Pakistan and six individuals over an April attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 men, and triggered intense fighting between the two countries.
The fighting, the worst between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades, was sparked when militants opened fire on Hindu tourists in the Pahalgam region of Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi said the attack was backed by Pakistan, allegations which Islamabad has denied.
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF) were charged for their alleged role in “planning, facilitating, and executing the Pahalgam attack”, according to a statement from India’s anti-terrorism agency.
Three Pakistani men killed by Indian security forces during Operation Mahadev in July in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir, were charged posthumously, the statement said. Another two men already in custody were charged and a man accused of being a Pakistani terrorist handler.
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The 1,597-page document was filed before a special court in the Jammu region of India and contained the first formal charges over the attack.
The NIA traced the conspiracy to Pakistan during a probe that lasted eight months, the statement said, adding that the LeT and TRF, along with the six men, were charged with waging war against India.
Earlier, India said it hit nine sites in Pakistan “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed”, following last month’s deadly attack in Kashmir.
The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two wars since independence from colonial ruler Britain in 1947 over the mainly Muslim region that both rule in part, while claiming in full.
New Delhi blamed last month’s attack in a scenic Himalayan meadow on a group linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant outfit based in Pakistan.
Pakistan, which denies any involvement in the Kashmir attack, said the Indian strikes killed 26 civilians and its forces downed five Indian fighter jets.
It vowed to respond “to this aggression at a time, place, and means of our own choice”.
India said seven of its targets were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Islamist groups designated “terrorist” organizations by the UN Security Council.
For decades Hindu-majority India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Kashmir.
Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of supporting separatist rebels in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the “army of the pure”, is based in Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab and has long focused on fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
The UN Security Council, opens new tab says it has conducted “numerous terrorist operations” against military and civilian targets since 1993, including November 2008 attacks in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai that killed 166.
Hafiz Saeed, who founded LeT around 1990, has denied any role in the attack.
The United Nations says LeT has also been implicated in attacks on Mumbai commuter trains in July 2006 and a December 2001 attack on India’s parliament.
