"Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear," Rajnath Singh said in a speech in New Delhi, a day after gunmen killed 26 men at a tourist hotspot 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."
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.
- 'Serious risk' -
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that those responsible for the "heinous act" will "be brought to justice".
Modi is set to hold an emergency cabinet meeting with top security chiefs later on Wednesday.
"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 arch-rivals India and Pakistan have long accused each other of backing forces to destabilise the other, and New Delhi says Islamabad backs the gunmen behind the insurgency.
Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only supports Kashmir's struggle for self-determination.
Pakistan's foreign ministry on Wednesday offered its "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".
- Blood stains -
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the attack had been "much larger than anything we've seen directed at civilians" in recent 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 on Wednesday, the army killed two people after a "heavy exchange of fire", saying the gunmen were part of an "infiltration bid" crossing the contested frontier from Pakistan.
AFP journalists near the site of the Pahalgam attack reported a heavy deployment of security forces. Pahalgam is popular with tourists in summer and is about 90 kilometres (55 miles) by road from the city of Srinagar.
Smears of blood could still be seen on the grass where the killings took place as forensic investigators searched for evidence.
A tour guide told AFP he had carried some of the wounded away on horseback.
Waheed, who gave only one name, said he saw several men lying dead on the ground, while a witness who requested anonymity said the attackers were "clearly sparing women".
The killings came a day after Modi met US Vice President JD Vance in New Delhi.
The deadliest previous attack on civilians was in March 2000 when 36 Indians were killed on the eve of a visit by then-US president Bill Clinton.
- 'Heinous' -
US President Donald Trump called Modi to offer "full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack".
China, which neighbours the troubled region, offered its "sincere sympathies" to the families of those killed.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in the territory but fighting has eased since Modi's government revoked Kashmir's limited autonomy in 2019.
Authorities in recent years have promoted the mountainous region as a holiday destination, both for skiing in winter and to escape the sweltering summer heat elsewhere in India.
Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, mostly domestic visitors.
The worst attack in recent years was in Pulwama in February 2019 when insurgents rammed a car packed with explosives into a police convoy, killing 40 and wounding at least 35 others.
India and Pakistan: A history of division and war
New Delhi (AFP) April 24, 2025 -
Nuclear-armed arch-rivals India and Pakistan have long accused each other of backing forces to destabilise them, especially in the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir that each controls parts of.
New Delhi regularly blames Islamabad for backing gunmen in Kashmir, who have fought an insurgency against Indian forces since 1989.
Islamabad denies it backs the insurgents, saying it only supports Muslim-majority Kashmir's struggle for self-determination.
The killing of 26 people in Indian-run Kashmir on Tuesday signalled a dramatic escalation in violence -- targeting civilians and the area's vital tourism industry -- and a shift from the common small-scale clashes between militants and security forces.
India on Wednesday took a raft of diplomatic measures against Islamabad, including shutting its key land border crossing and suspending a water-sharing treaty.
Pakistan then announced a meeting of its National Security Committee, summoned only in cases of external threat or major attack.
Here are key events in their troubled relationship.
- 1947: Partition and war -
Two centuries of British rule end on August 15, 1947, with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others.
Kashmir's monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.
But, after the suppression of uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India's help -- precipitating an all-out war between both countries.
A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (478-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir, known as the Line of Control.
- 1965-71: Kashmir and Bangladesh wars -
Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades Kashmir.
The conflict ends seven weeks later after a ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union with thousands of soldiers dead on each side.
Pakistan deploys troops at the start of 1971 to suppress a growing independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947.
An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions more flee into India.
India invades Bangladesh, forcing Pakistan's surrender in 1971.
- 1989-90: Rebellion in Kashmir -
An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as longstanding grievances at Indian rule boil over.
Hindus and other minorities flee the region over the following year after targeted assassinations, assaults, and threats by rebel fighters.
Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades in clashes between security forces and militants.
India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.
- 1998-99: Nuclear weapons and Kargil conflict -
Pakistan conducts its first public nuclear weapons tests in 1998, following India, which first conducted tests in 1974.
Pakistan-backed militants cross into Indian-administered Kashmir in 1999, seizing military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains.
Raja Mohammad Zafarul Haq, a leading member of Pakistan's ruling party, says his country will not refrain from using nuclear weapons to protect its security if necessary.
Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict.
Pakistan's then prime minister Nawaz Sharif blames army chief Pervez Musharraf for igniting the conflict, which killed at least 1,000 people over 10 weeks, without his knowledge or approval. Musharraf overthrows Sharif in a coup months later.
- 2008-Present: Mumbai attacks and Modi -
Islamist gunmen attack the Indian financial hub of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people.
India blames Pakistan's intelligence service for the assault and suspends peace talks. Contacts resume in 2011, but the situation is marred by sporadic fighting.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a surprise visit to Pakistan in 2015 but the diplomatic thaw is short-lived.
A 2019 suicide attack kills 41 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir and prompts Modi to order airstrikes inside Pakistan.
The resulting stand-off between the two nations is swiftly defused and Modi is re-elected months later, partly on a wave of nationalist fervour spurred by the military response.
Later, Modi's government cancels Kashmir's partial autonomy, a sudden decision accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long communications blackout.
In 2021, both nations reaffirm a 2003 ceasefire, but Pakistan insists that peace talks can resume only if India reinstates Kashmir's pre-2019 autonomous status.
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