Kashmir attack on tourists pushes India-Pakistan ties to the brink
A militant attack that killed 26 people in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir has brought ties between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to their lowest point in years.
SRINAGAR, India — After trekking through streams and forests in Indian-administered Kashmir, Sheetal Kalthia and her vacationing family had just arrived in a remote, picturesque meadow when they heard gunshots.
Kalthia, who was with her husband and their two children, said they “sensed that something was wrong and ran to hide behind the tent, but they suddenly were standing in front of us.”
Militants armed with rifles had descended on tourists in the meadow from the surrounding woods, identifying non-Muslims and then separating the men from the women and children.
One of the militants “shot six to seven men in front of me,” Kalthia said, before shooting her husband, Shailesh.
“My husband died in my lap, and I couldn’t do anything about it,” she told reporters Thursday at his funeral in their hometown of Surat in the Indian state of Gujarat.
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