Folks 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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PULWAMA, India — Indian authorities have detained no less than 1,500 folks in India-administered Kashmir after a militant assault killed 26 folks final week, a high police officer advised NPR. A number of properties 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 navy. 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 “impartial, clear 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.
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However some Kashmiri residents visited by NPR say Indian officers have taken different measures throughout the a part of the territory that it controls. Properties 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 celebration, stated he had acquired a number of messages from residents within the villages the place the homes had been blown up. “They’re certain that these acts had been carried out by safety forces. It is easy to know too — who else would be capable of go and blow up homes like that?”
Members of the family of 1 suspected militant advised NPR that safety forces rigged their home with explosives that they detonated, bringing down their residence early Saturday.
The police crackdown began on Thursday evening, two days after the assault, when NPR confirmed that the properties 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 residence home was largely diminished to rubble. Solely the kitchen remained standing, solely accessible by means of a damaged window.
Thokar’s mom Shahzada advised 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. “However I’ve 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, advised NPR that her household residence was destroyed by explosives early Friday the doorways and home windows of the two-level residence had been blown aside.
“They deliberate this,” stated Yasmeena — who makes use of just one title — referring to the safety forces. “Hours earlier than, they locked all of the cattle — not simply ours — into the sheds, and requested us to place fingers into our ears. Once we requested why, they stated a blast will occur in your own home.”
In yet 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 worry of reprisal, stated that his son referred to as him to hurry residence as a result of safety forces had surrounded the realm. My husband, son and daughter-in-law had been saved in a room and requested to remain indoors. I used to be in a neighbor’s home. There have been two blasts — we felt every part was over.”
Folks 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 properties, broke doorways and cracked aside partitions. “If it is one individual’s mistake, why ought to everybody else be punished for it?” the neighbor stated.
Lately, the Indian authorities has usually ordered demolition of homes of these accused of prison exercise, usually utilizing bulldozers. Thanks to those incidents, India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Celebration has been charged with deploying “bulldozer justice” — destroying properties and livelihoods of the minority Muslim neighborhood.
“Such acts serve the agenda of the right-wing on each side,” stated Mehdi, the Kashmiri legislator. “The terrorists that killed these innocents in Pahalgam, and the opposite right-wing, that desires to communalize this nation.”
