Pahalgam attacks: Patrons punished, perpetrators still at large

Butchers of Baisaran remain elusive even as six weeks passed after the April 22 carnage

Even as six weeks have passed after 25 tourists and a local resident were brutally killed at a scenic meadow near Pahalgam in south Kashmir, the terrorists, who carried out the attack, remain at large.

India responded to the carnage by launching ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, targeting terrorist camps in Pakistan and areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan, and sending out a strong message to the ‘deep state’ of the neighbouring country. A four-day-long cross-border military flare-up followed, which came to its end on May 10. New Delhi also put in abeyance its Indus Water Treaty with Islamabad, apart from other measures. But, despite a massive manhunt by the J&K police and Indian Army, the five terrorists, who went on a killing spree on the meadow that day, appear to have vanished like ghosts into the forests and mountains of south Kashmir.

The April 22 massacre, claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadowy proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, marked one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Kashmir in recent years. It also triggered one of the most intense security operations in the Valley since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

On April 27, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) formally took over the probe. Its teams have been stationed in Srinagar and south Kashmir, working closely with J&K police and military intelligence units, combing through call records, travel data, and seized digital devices.

Yet, there has been no arrest or clue leading to the terrorists, who turned the scenic tourist destination into a killing field.

This is in sharp contrast to the terrorist attack at Pulwama on February 14, 2019, when, within 10 days after 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide bombing, the security forces tracked down and eliminated the main perpetrators in a village just 12 km from the scene.

“The Pulwama operation showed the strength of the intelligence and response apparatus,” a retired senior police officer told DH. “This time, the same ecosystem seems slower, fragmented – or perhaps outsmarted.”

“They (terrorists who carried out the April 22 attacks) have either exfiltrated through deep forest or are hiding in plain sight with local support,” he said. “When we eliminated the terrorists responsible for the Pulwama attack, it restored some public faith. Today, that faith is shaken.”

Intelligence agencies suggest that Pahalgam attackers – three Pakistanis and two local residents - were well-trained to operate without digital trails, making them hard to track.

“The terrain is their ally,” another former security official said. “They can live off the grid for weeks. They’re using our mountains and forests the way guerrilla fighters do. That’s the real challenge.”

In mid-May, six local militants were killed in two operations in Tral and Shopian. But as officials later clarified, none of them were directly linked to the April 22 massacre.

The prolonged failure to trace the attackers is raising difficult questions. The public is anxious, especially in tourism-dependent areas. “It’s not just the killings — it’s the silence since. That’s what’s most terrifying,” said a hotelier in Pahalgam.

More worryingly, experts believe this could signal a new phase in Kashmir’s militancy — one where handlers across the border are deploying mercenaries physically and mentally well-trained and capable of evading security dragnets for a long period.

And, as long as the ‘Butchers of Baisaran’ remain free, the horror they unleashed will loom large over the fragile calm of Kashmir.