The Pahalgam Attack: Pakistan’s bid to distract attention from troubles at home

The serene meadows of Baisaran, often dubbed “Mini Switzerland” in Pahalgam, turned into a scene of horror this Tuesday. What should have been a tranquil, joyful summer outing for nearly a thousand tourists became a blood-soaked tragedy, with 26 innocent lives—including a local pony handler—were lost to a terror assault.

This wasn’t just another act of terrorism. It was a loud, brutal signal. The timing of the attack is no coincidence. Only days earlier, Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim, addressed a crowd of overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad, invoking the unrest in Balochistan and, more pointedly, the “jugular vein” that Pakistan claims as Kashmir. His speech drew a standing ovation—a chilling reminder that even in economic despair, Pakistan’s military establishment can stoke sectarian flames.

What followed in Pahalgam was likely more than just a strike against civilians; it was a calculated attempt to push the Kashmir issue back into the international spotlight. And in doing so, to distract Pakistan’s people from inflation, political dysfunction and global diplomatic isolation. General Asim’s speech seemed like a green light to Pakistan-based terror outfits—Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Hizbul Mujahideen—to renew their anti-India operations. It’s a strategy we’ve seen before: when the domestic pot boils over, turn the heat outward.

India has refused to engage with Pakistan on Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 making credible suppression of terrorism by Pakistan the non-negotiable issue. That move effectively neutralized Pakistan’s long-held talking point. In the years since, a crackdown on separatist elements and the dissolution of key political players in the Valley further silenced voices that once echoed across the border. Pakistan’s silence then was surprising. Perhaps even strategic. Tuesday’s bloodbath aims to changes that equation.

By targeting tourists—symbols of peace, progress, and India’s post-370 normalization effort—terrorists didn’t just aim to cause fear. They sought to send a message: Kashmir is far from settled. And they hope to succeed, not in bringing about a change in policy, but in rekindling tension. Pakistan has already placed its armed forces on alert, fearing Indian retaliation akin to the 2019 Balakot airstrike post-Pulwama. The threat of escalation is all too real.

Meanwhile, at home, the narrative that terrorism has been decisively countered in Kashmir is now under scrutiny. Questions are being asked that if terrorism was indeed being countered, how could such a massacre happen in one of the Valley’s most tourist-friendly zones? The security operations will now track the killers to bring them to justice, hoping to restore some measure of confidence.

This isn’t just about the failure of intelligence or border management. It’s about the possibility that the Kashmir conflict is manipulable. The danger lies not just in bullets fired in Pahalgam, but in the strategic calculation behind them. If this attack was intended to draw international attention back to Kashmir, it might partially succeed. But it will come at the cost of innocent lives and a fresh wave of uncertainty in a region desperate for peace and the benefits of economic progress.

Pakistan authorities are convinced that India is meddling in the affairs of Baluchistan but remain Unable to prove it before world forums. The Tuesday terror attack is a bid to serve notice of the importance of the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan.

The severe crackdown on separatist groups and elements in Kashmir valley undertaken by the Modi government also jolted Pakistan which resulted in the silencing of their voice in the valley. The crackdown shocked Pakistan to the extent that they could not hire new leadership for the separatists after the demise of Syed Ali Geelani not long after revocation of Article 370, 35-A.

Hizbul MujahideenJammu and KashmirLeTPahalgamterror attack