According to the police, around nine people have been killed and 33 people have been injured after a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in Indian-administered Kashmir fell into a ravine after a suspected shooting attack. This crash happened recently near Reasi town, in the south of the disputed territory, as the bus was returning from a popular Hindu shrine in the area.
Militants ambushed the bus and fired at it extensively.The bus fell into a gorge, leading to the death of nine pilgrims, and 33 are injured, says police chief Mohita Sharma from the Reasi district. She also mentioned that the rescue operation was completed and the injured were taken to Reasi District Hospital and Narayana Hospital and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Senior administrative officer Vishesh Mahajan said that the bus was carrying pilgrims to the base camp of the Hindu temple Mata Vaishno Devi when it came under attack. India’s Opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the gruesome terror attack in a post on social media platform The Himalayan region, which is also claimed by Pakistan, has been shaken by violence since the beginning of an armed rebellion in 1989. Thousands of people have been killed, even though violence has tapered off in recent years.
Most of the time India blames Pakistan for arming and supporting rebels in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad disagrees. The last big attack on Hindu pilgrims in the region happened in 2017 when a bus was targeted, which killed eight people. Furthermore, violence and anti-India protests have extremely fallen since 2019, when Modi’s government canceled the region’s limited autonomy. No separatist group called for a boycott of the recently concluded general election, a first since the armed revolt erupted in the territory. The vote in the region saw a 58.6 percent turnout, according to India’s election commission, a 30-percentage-point jump from the last vote in 2019 and the highest in 35 years.
