The April 2025 massacre in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 tourists—primarily Hindus, along with a Christian and a local Muslim—were brutally murdered by armed militants, has been described by experts as part of a disturbing global trend of ideological violence targeting specific communities.

According to David Cohen, a former US official, and Avatans Kumar, a journalist and linguist, the attack is not an isolated incident but a manifestation of a broader extremist ideology that has found resonance worldwide, including in the United States.

The assailants, linked to The Resistance Front (TRF)—an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba—specifically targeted non-Muslim tourists. Survivors and eyewitnesses reported that the militants interrogated victims about their religion, demanded recitation of the Islamic kalima, and executed those who failed to comply.

The attackers separated Hindu and Christian men from others, shooting them at close range, while some women were spared to "narrate the horrors" to Indian authorities. The method of religious identification and selective killing echoed tactics used in other global terror attacks, such as those by al-Shabaab in Kenya, where Christians were similarly targeted.

Cohen and Kumar, writing in Newsweek, argue that this pattern of violence is rooted in a globalized extremist ideology, often justified by the rhetoric of "resistance" or "intifada," which transcends regional conflicts like that of Israel and Palestine.

They highlight that such violence has also targeted Jews, Christians in Nigeria, Yazidis, Druze, Alawite and Ahmadiyya Muslims, Copts, Sikhs, and Baha'is, among others. The authors draw parallels between the Pahalgam massacre and the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, emphasizing that both incidents involved the demonisation of victims and the use of similar propaganda narratives to justify atrocities.

The Pahalgam attack's timing and execution bore the hallmarks of cross-border terrorism, with the TRF claiming responsibility as a response to perceived demographic changes in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. The attack, which was the deadliest on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, not only reignited tensions between India and Pakistan but also exposed vulnerabilities in local security arrangements and intelligence. The massacre led to widespread panic, a mass exodus of tourists, and a spontaneous shutdown across the Kashmir Valley, as locals expressed solidarity with the victims and rejected the extremist narrative.

Cohen and Kumar call for a "Coalition Against Terror," urging all communities victimized by such ideologies to unite and amplify each other's stories. They stress that the fight is not against any religion or culture, but against an ideology that legitimizes violence against civilians. The authors warn that the survival of pluralistic societies depends on collective resistance to this globalized threat.

The Pahalgam massacre stands as a grim reminder that ideological violence, driven by extremist narratives and targeting specific communities, is a global phenomenon demanding a unified and strategic response.

Based On ANI Report