Kashmir attack updates: Indian forces blow up homes after Pahalgam attack

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You can read about Pakistan’s calls for a “neutral” investigation into the Pahalgam attack here.

And you can see the aftermath of the demolitions by Indian soldiers of the homes of the accused attackers and their families here.

We’re going to be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s major events:

• India and Pakistan have exchanged gunfire for a third successive night across the Line of Control, which separates Pakistan-administered Kashmir from India-administered Kashmir, the Indian army says.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says those behind the Pahalgam attack on Tuesday “will be served with the harshest response”.
• Politicians in Kashmir have criticised the authorities’ crackdown after the attack. Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said security forces must distinguish between “terrorists” and civilians while MP Ruhullah Mehdi said Kashmir and Kashmiris are facing “collective punishment”.
• India’s counterterrorism National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe into the Pahalgam attack.

Ghulam Rasool Magray, 44, was shot by unidentified gunmen in Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Saturday night and died today from his injuries at a hospital in Srinagar, The Wire reported.

The Indian news website reported that Magray had been dragged out of his home and shot outside the residence.

A member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh, visited Magray’s family and accused the state’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, of ignoring the incident.

“A human being and the lone support of a blind mother has been killed, but no one from the administration has bothered to visit them. … I’ve been here for two hours, but no one seems interested in hunting down the attackers,” Sheikh said. “Is he [Abdullah] trying to convey a message that only the killings in Pahalgam were important for him and that the death of a Kashmiri civilian doesn’t matter?”

Members of the Pakistani diaspora held a counterprotest in front of the Indian High Commission in London amid tensions between the two South Asian rivals over the deadly Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

While no arrests have been made at today’s protest so far, it comes a day after scuffles between pro-Pakistan and pro-India groups, this time in front of the Pakistan High Commission, after Indian protesters turned up to the demonstration with placards reading “I am Hindu”, according to the Times of India.

The protesters echoed the Indian government’s claims that Pakistan was responsible for the Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 people. Pakistan fiercely denies that claim.

Moreover, at Saturday’s protest, the action of a Pakistani military official making a throat-slitting gesture in front of Indian demonstrators has also sparked furore.

Pakistan’s High Commission was also vandalised following Saturday’s protests, and two people were arrested in connection, Pakistani media reported.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke with his British counterpart about the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people.

Jaishankar wrote on X that during the meeting, he “emphasised the importance of zero tolerance for terrorism”.

Earlier, Modi reiterated that those responsible for the attack would be “served with the harshest response,” adding that “the entire world stands with the 1.4 billion Indians in our fight against terrorism”.

Shortly after Tuesday’s attack, India accused Pakistan of being responsible for the attack, an accusation that Pakistan has denied.

The father of suspected rebel Shahid Ahmad Kutay, 27, from Chotipora in Shopian district, told Al Jazeera that his family had lost everything after Indian forces demolished his home.

“I don’t even know whether my son is dead or alive. He left home long ago, and we have had no contact since. Why was our house demolished?” he said.

“Instead of punishing us, the government should find and punish him. Why should the entire family suffer for the action of one individual? I want the government to come and see our plight,” he added.

In Bandipora’s Ajas village, the family of Altaf Lali, brother of jailed Hizbul Mujahideen fighter Talib Lali, protested, claiming that Altaf, 32, was a civilian, and rubbished claims from Indian officials that he was killed in an encounter with security personnel.

“He was at home two days before his killing when the forces picked him up. Two days later, they said he was killed in an encounter. If this isn’t a fake encounter, then what is? We have no voice, no way to protest,” said one of his cousins who protested in Bandipora.

Police described Lali as a “militant associate” who was killed in a gunfight on Friday.

Ruhullah Mehdi, who represents Srinagar in the Parliament of India, wrote on social media that “Kashmir and Kashmiris” were facing “collective punishment” in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

Mehdi is a former state cabinet minister, and has been a member of parliament since June 2024.

Kashmir and Kashmiris are being given a collective punishment.

— Ruhullah Mehdi (@RuhullahMehdi) April 27, 2025

At least nine residential houses have been demolished by Indian forces across Kashmir since the Pahalgam attack.

“These are Israeli tactics to punish the local population. What is the fault of innocent families? The houses don’t belong to the militants. Once they left their homes years ago, they also left their families,” said a relative of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba fighter Farooq Teedwa in the border district of Kupwara, whose family home was blown up by security forces today.

Israel regularly blows up the homes of family members of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks in a tactic that human rights organisations say is collective punishment.

Teedwa had crossed over to Pakistan in the 1990s and never returned, according to his family.

In Murran village of Pulwama in southern Kashmir, locals told Al Jazeera that at least 12 houses were damaged when Indian forces blew up the home of suspected rebel Ahsan Sheikh, whom police claim is also affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“We were offering Isha [evening] prayers at the mosque when they blasted the house of our neighbour. Our own home along with a dozen others surrounding it was ravaged. What was our fault? We don’t know what to do now,” said one resident whose house was damaged in the explosion.

“They just happen to be our neighbours.”

Let’s catch you up on recent developments:

• Pakistan reiterates its calls for an independent investigation into the Pahalgam attack in India-administered Kashmir, saying Russia and China could play a role in the probe.
• Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomes Iran’s offer to de-escalate the crisis between Islamabad and New Delhi.
• In a call with his Chinese counterpart, Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar says he rejects India’s “baseless propaganda against Pakistan”.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warns that “terrorists and their patrons” are involved in a conspiracy to destroy Kashmir.
• The Indian navy carries out a drill to “demonstrate readiness” amid the tensions with Pakistan.
• Kashmiri leaders voice their concerns against demolitions of houses and arrests of hundreds of people in the wake of Tuesday’s attack, which killed 26 people. “Kashmir and Kashmiris are being given a collective punishment,” Ruhullah Mehdi, a member of parliament from Srinagar, posted on X.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif tells RIA Novosti that Moscow and Beijing may participate in an international investigation into the deadly attack in Kashmir.

“I think that Russia or China or even Western countries can play a very positive role in this crisis, and they can even create an investigation team … to investigate whether India is lying or Modi is telling the truth,” the Russian news agency quoted Asif as saying.

“Let the international team find out.”

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry says Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and “rejected India’s unilateral and illegal actions, as well as its baseless propaganda against Pakistan”.

“Both sides reiterated their firm resolve to uphold regional peace and stability, promote mutual respect and understanding, and jointly oppose unilateralism and hegemonic policies,” the ministry said.

“They agreed to maintain close communication and coordination at all levels to advance their shared objectives of peace, security, and sustainable development in the region and beyond.”

China and India have had their own border disputes, sparking tensions between Beijing and New Delhi in recent years.

Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone says the protests against the Pahalgam attack have marked a change in the valley’s social fabric.

Lone explained that for decades, some sections of society had become normalised to the violence, but the recent attack has changed that.

“This is a monumental shift, a milestone. But at the same time, a fragile shift,” he said, urging authorities to understand the significance of the development.

He also cautioned, like other Kashmiri officials, that residents felt that they were collectively being punished for the attack.

“Using collectiveness to define criminality or terrorism is a curse and will never allow reconciliation and social introspection,” Lone said.

Kashmiri students across several Indian states have been attacked in the wake of deadly attacks last week.

Many of them are avoiding venturing out in the public while others have gone into hiding to escape attacks as Hindu far-right leaders have escalated their rhetoric against Kashmiris.

Read our full story here on the attacks on Kashmiris.

There must be a “decisive fight against terrorism and its origin”, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah says after the Pahalgam attack.

“People of Kashmir have come out openly against terrorism and the murder of innocent people, they did this freely & spontaneously. It’s time to build on this support and avoid any misplaced action that alienates people,” Abdullah wrote on X.

“Punish the guilty, show them no mercy but don’t let innocent people become collateral damage,” he added, joining a chorus of other Kashmiri officials calling for the safety of residents during the Indian investigations.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed Iran’s readiness to help de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“The prime minister of Pakistan said that his country seeks peace in the region and that if Iran wishes to play a role in this regard, Islamabad will welcome it,” Sharif’s office said in a statement carried by IRNA.

“Pakistan condemns all forms of terrorism and has no connection to the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, located in the Indian-administered Kashmir region,” it added.

The statement comes after Sharif said Islamabad was ready to participate in a neutral investigation into the Pahalgam attack.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has condemned the Pahalgam attack and said it is “imperative to bring its perpetrators to justice”.

However, the prominent separatist leader, in a post on X, said the “indiscriminate arrests” and the videos on social media of the demolition of houses were “disturbing and distressing”.

“I urge the authorities, that in seeking justice for the innocent victims not to punish innocent Kashmiri families,” he added.

The former chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has said the Indian government “must tread with caution and carefully distinguish between terrorists and civilians, as security forces have arrested hundreds of people and demolished houses in the wake of the Pahalgam attack”.

“It must not alienate innocent people, especially those opposing terror. There are reports of thousands being arrested and scores of houses of common Kashmiris being demolished along with those of militants,” Mufti, the leader of the regional Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, posted on X.

She called on the authorities to “take care that innocent people are not made to feel the brunt as alienation aids terrorists’ goals of division and fear”.