Individuals stand close to the razed home of Kashmiri militant Ahsan Ul Haq Sheikh’s household home in Murran space of Pulwama district on April 26, 2025.
Bilal Kuchay/NPR
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Bilal Kuchay/NPR
PULWAMA, India — Indian authorities detained at the very least 1,500 individuals in India-administered Kashmir after a militant assault killed 26 individuals final week, a prime police officer instructed NPR. A number of houses linked to alleged militants had been additionally destroyed.
India accused Pakistan of getting a connection to the assault — the worst geared toward Indian civilians in additional than a decade — claiming that the group that claimed duty was backed by the Pakistani army. That ratcheted up tensions between the 2 nuclear-armed nations, who each management components of Kashmir, however declare possession over the entire area.
A press release from the Pakistani prime minister expressed concern over the lack of lives of vacationers, and denied any duty for the lethal rampage in an alpine meadow on Tuesday — wherein gunmen appeared to focus on Hindu males, earlier than fleeing into the forested mountains earlier than safety forces might arrive. Days after the assault, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif stated they had been open to a “neutral, transparent probe” into what occurred.
Over the previous week, India has suspended visas for Pakistani guests, expelled a few of its diplomats, and halted a decades-old treaty that divides six rivers between the 2 nations. Pakistan introduced tit-for-tat measures. It additionally suspended cross-border commerce and closed off Pakistani airspace for Indian plane.
An aged man inspecting the demolished household home of alleged Kashmiri militant Adil Thoker in Guree village of South Kashmir.
Bilal Kuchay/NPR
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However some Kashmiri residents visited by NPR say Indian officers have taken different measures inside the a part of the territory that it controls. Houses belonging to 5 suspected perpetrators had been destroyed, stated VK Birdi, a senior Indian police official within the area. He didn’t say who carried out the demolitions, and different Indian authorities didn’t reply to NPR requests for remark.
Ruhallah Mehdi, a member of Parliament from Kashmir’s ruling Nationwide Convention occasion, stated he had acquired a number of messages from residents within the villages the place the homes had been blown up. “They are sure that these acts were carried out by security forces. It’s easy to understand too — who else would be able to go and blow up houses like that?”
Members of the family of 1 suspected militant instructed NPR that safety forces rigged their home with explosives that they detonated, bringing down their dwelling early Saturday.
The police crackdown began on Thursday evening, two days after the assault, when NPR confirmed that the houses of three suspected militants had been destroyed — together with the house of the one man that Indian authorities have named as being suspected in involvement within the assault, Adil Thokar.
When NPR visited Thokar’s home in Anantnag district on Saturday, the two-story dwelling home was principally decreased to rubble. Solely the kitchen remained standing, solely accessible by a damaged window.
Thokar’s mom Shahzada instructed NPR that safety forces moved her and her neighbors round 100 meters from their home on Friday, earlier than it was introduced down in a blast.
Standing subsequent to a pile of rubble, Thokar’s mom stated she would help punishment for her son if he is discovered responsible. “But I have not seen him since he joined the militant ranks in 2018,” she stated.
She stated police had additionally detained her husband, brother and two cousins.
Sneakers coated in mud and bricks in a destroyed home in Murran village within the Pulwama district, Kashmir, on April 26,2025.
Bilal Kuchay/NPR
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Some 20 miles away within the neighboring Pulwama district, Yasmeena, the sister of one other suspected militant Asif Sheikh, instructed NPR that her household dwelling was destroyed by explosives early Friday the doorways and home windows of the two-level dwelling had been blown aside.
“They planned this,” stated Yasmeena — who makes use of just one identify — referring to the safety forces. “Hours before, they locked all the cattle — not just ours — into the sheds, and asked us to put fingers into our ears. When we asked why, they said a blast will happen in your house.”
In one more village, neighbors stated the house of one other suspected militant, Ahsan Ul Haq Sheikh was blown up on Friday evening.
A neighbor, who spoke to NPR on situation of anonymity for concern of reprisal, stated that his son referred to as him to hurry dwelling as a result of safety forces had surrounded the realm. My husband, son and daughter-in-law had been stored in a room and requested to remain indoors. I used to be in a neighbor’s home. There have been two blasts — we felt all the things was over.”
Individuals stand close to the razed home of alleged Kashmiri militant Ahsan Ul Haq Sheikh’s household home in Murran space of Pulwama district on April 26, 2025
Bilal Kuchay/NPR
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Bilal Kuchay/NPR
The blast shattered home windows of neighboring houses, broke doorways and cracked aside partitions. “If it’s one person’s mistake, why should everyone else be punished for it?” the neighbor stated.
In recent times, the Indian authorities has typically ordered demolition of homes of these accused of felony exercise, typically utilizing bulldozers. Thanks to those incidents, India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Get together has been charged with deploying “bulldozer justice” — destroying houses and livelihoods of the minority Muslim group.
“Such acts serve the agenda of the right-wing on both sides,” stated Mehdi, the Kashmiri legislator. “The terrorists that killed these innocents in Pahalgam, and the other right-wing, that wants to communalize this country.”
