Gunmen Execute 26 Tourists In Indian-Controlled Kashmir

India has suffered one of its worst terror attacks in recent years, after gunmen conducted mass killings in a picturesque and tourist-poplar spot in the disputed and Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The site's location in the mountainous Anantnag district is so remote that it took at least half a day for casualty figures to emerge, but authorities have since announced that 26 people were killed. Most the dead were travelers visiting a popular tourist destination in the Baisaran Valley, which is only accessible by foot or horseback. A huge military rescue operation and search for victims ensued. 

Emerging eyewitness accounts indicated that men were separated from women and children by unknown armed militants which had descended on the area. The men, all civilians, were then asked their names before being executed at close range. 

Reuters describes that "About 1,000 tourists and 300 local service providers were in the Baisaran Valley - known as mini Switzerland for its lush hilltop meadow, surrounded by dense pine forests - when three gunmen launched the Tuesday attack, the worst, opens new tab in India in nearly two decades."

The initial reaction of the Indian government was to point the finger at Pakistan, but without naming specific culprits responsible. Indian leaders have for decades accused Pakistan of knowingly harboring terrorists along the disputed border.

There's also been anger and confusion at what's clearly a major security lapse, given is Jammu and Kashmir is heavily militarized and patrolled by the Indian Army. India also suspects that it was a Pakistan-backed massacre conducted by Islamic extremists due to the sectarian nature of the attack, given almost all the victims were Hindu:

General Hooda said the fact that the victims were civilians, and that witness accounts in Indian media suggested Hindus had been singled out by the militants, had only added to the pressure. A list of the victims circulating online, which was verified by local officials in Kashmir, showed that 25 of the 26 killed were Hindus.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri specifically charged Wednesday press conference that "cross-border linkages of the terrorist act" had been "brought out" - in a clear reference to Pakistan. Authorities have identified that 25 victims were Indian, and one a Nepali citizen. 

Pakistan has vehemently denied that it was behind the killings, as it has prior such terror attacks. The country's defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, declared in the aftermath that his country did not "support any form of terrorism" - but instead said "homegrown" elements were behind it.

A relatively unknown group calling itself The Resistance Front claimed responsibility in a social media post. It blamed "outsiders" who settled the region and caused a "demographic change" - strongly suggesting the terror attack was tied to Indian claims over the disputed region.

According to some eyewitness accounts featured in CNN:

“My husband was shot in the head while seven others were also injured in the attack,” one woman survivor said, according to PTI.

Another survivor, Asavari Jagdale, told PTI the gunmen came into the tent where her family was hiding. The attackers accused the family – hailing from India’s western Pune city – of supporting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before shooting Jagdale’s male relatives, including her father, she said.

Local resident Abdul Waheed told CNN he jumped on his pony to help transport the injured back to areas where they could be driven to the hospital, and enlisted others in his local pony association to help. For those who were too injured, they used makeshift cots to carry them down the valley.

“I saw people crying, screaming, just lying in the aftermath of the attack. There were children, women, men, everyone,” he said. “It was a massive trauma. I did not sleep all night.”

The Indian government has offered monetary reward for "any information leading to the neutralization of the terrorists involved in this cowardly act."

President Trump's statement in reaction to the deadly terror attack...

The Himalayan region is administered in some parts by both Pakistani and Indian soldiers, and has long been a hotbed of violence; however, regional media has highlighted that direct attacks on tourists remain very rare.