26 people were killed and 17 injured in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region in an attack on tourists on 22 April, local police said on Wednesday.
The attack is considered the country’s worst in nearly two decades since the 2008 Mumbai shooting that killed at least 166 people.
Among the dead-one Nepalese national, others Indian nationals, all the dead were men.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah called the attack a “dastardly act of terrorism,” without providing information on the perpetrators.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short a state visit to Saudi Arabia, condemned the “heinous act” and promised that the attackers “will be brought to justice.”
According to media reports, armed assailants started firing at people in a popular tourist area near the town of Pahalgam on 22 April.
A little-known group, Kashmiri Resistance, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. In a message on social media, it expressed displeasure over the settlement of “outsiders” in the region.
Kashmir was effectively divided between India and Pakistan (and partly China) after those countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. Two of the three wars between the two neighbouring nuclear powers occurred over the issue of control of the disputed territory.
Extremist groups have been active in the region for many years.