Pahalgam, a scenic town in Indian-administered Kashmir's Anantnag district, plays a crucial role in one of Hinduism's most revered religious events.

Pilgrims use the town as a base camp before starting their 32km (20 miles) journey on foot or on horses through the mountainous terrain to reach the Amarnath cave temple, which is dedicated to Hindu god Shiva.

This is one of several routes that pilgrims take for what is known as the annual Amarnath Yatra. The attack has come just months before the 39-day yatra gets under way on 3 July.

Although Tuesday's targeting of tourists is rare, the pilgrimage route has been targeted before as well. At least 32 people were killed when the Nuwan base camp was attacked in 2000, and 11 died in an attack at Chandanwari base camp in 2002. In 2017, at least eight people died in Kulgam when a bus carrying pilgrims came under attack.

Image source, Getty Images

Cherylann Mollan
Reporting from Mumbai

Image source, Siddharth Bakaria

Travel agency operators, tour guides and others who depend on tourism for their livelihoods fear their businesses will be hit badly.

Siddharth Bakaria, who runs a travel agency, Go Jammu and Kashmir, says people have been cancelling their upcoming trips.

"We've received about 270 cancellation requests so far," Mr Bakaria said, adding that this would amount to a loss of about 40m rupees ($468,000; £350,000).

He also said that some of the clients calling to cancel their bookings had expressed anger towards "people like him" - meaning Kashmiris - seeming to hold them responsible for the attack. However, locals have condemned the killings and there have been several protests in the region since last evening.

A woman who handles bookings at three hotels in Pahalgam told the BBC on condition of anonymity that she too has been receiving dozens of cancellation requests, something that's never happened before.

"People are scared now; they don't want to visit Kashmir," she said.

Ummer Shafi Wani, a taxi operator in Pahalgam, said tourists were rushing to leave the region. Around 700 local taxis were taking people to their homes and the airport since the attack, he said.

"The attack has completely destroyed our businesses. We depend on tourism for our livelihood and there's fear [among drivers] that we may not be able to bounce back after this incident," Mr Wani said.

Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has said it is heartbreaking to "see the exodus of our guests" from the valley, after Tuesday's tragic attack but he understands "why people would want to leave".

India’s civil aviation authorities said there was “unexpected demand from tourists seeking to return to their homes” and they had asked airlines to take swift action to increase the number of flights in response to heightened demand and wave off cancellation and rescheduling fees.

Abdullah said the government was working to organise extra flights and authorities were also allowing tourist vehicles to leave by road.

But permitting completely free movement was proving difficult because the road was unstable in places and officials were working hard to clear all the stranded vehicles, he said.

Pinaki Chakraborty
Reporting from Delhi

Front pages of leading newspapers in Indian-administered Kashmir have published black front pages following the attack in Pahalgam.

English and Urdu dailies, including Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Uzma and Taimeel-I-Irshad, had a sombre black background with headlines and editorials printed in red and white.

If you're just joining us, here's a quick look at what's happened so far:

• Twenty-six people were killed after gunmen opened fire on tourists visiting Pahalgam, a popular destination in Indian-administered Kashmir
• The attack took place in a meadow which is only accessible by foot or on horseback

• Among those killed were a naval officer on his honeymoon, a tech worker, an intelligence officer and a local tour guide
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to India

• The region’s Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, said the "attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years”.
• Kashmir is seeing protest marches against the killings amid a shutdown in the region on Wednesday
• Security has been heightened with a large deployment of security forces
• Tourists have rarely been targeted in the decades-long history of region's conflict

Eyewitnesses recount the horrific moment when gunmen opened fire, forcing them to run for their lives. "If we had not left the spot in time, we wouldn't be alive," one survivor told BBC Hindi.

We are getting pictures of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti leading a protest march against the killings in Pahalgam.

She had earlier supported calls for a shutdown as a mark of respect for the lives lost in the attack.

"A thorough investigation is needed to bring the perpetrators to justice and examine potential security lapses. Ensuring visitor safety is paramount and steps must be taken to prevent future attacks," Mufti wrote on X.

Majid Jehangir
BBC Hindi, reporting from Pahalgam

Image source, Getty Images

In the Langan Bal area, a few kilometres from Pahalgam, the atmosphere is tense, with a large deployment of security forces.

On the way to Pahalgam, I was stopped three times by local police personnel who didn't allow me to move towards the site of the attack.

In Pahalgam, the main market is shut.

Javed Ahmed, a hotelier in the region, is shocked at the “gruesome, inhuman” attack and says it's bad news for ordinary Kashmiris and the region's tourism industry.

Ahmed's hotel had been sold out until June but he now fears the attack could lead to cancellation of reservations and impact his business.

A local shawl vendor, who has been running his business for over three decades, expressed "deep anger" over the attack.

The lone breadwinner for his family, he said “whenever tourism peaks in Kashmir, something bad happens”.

Pinaki Chakraborty
Reporting from Delhi

Pahalgam is a hill station in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir. Located about 90km [56 miles] from the airport in the region's main city Srinagar, the town is a major tourist centre and accounts for a bulk of tourist footfall in the state.

It is around 200km from the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The local government recently announced that more than 23 million tourists visited the state in 2024 - a huge chunk of them are believed to have visited the scenic town.

The town and its surrounding areas are known for their lush green meadows and stunning natural beauty and are a favourite with India filmmakers.

Pahalgam also serves as the base camp for the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave offering the pilgrims essential facilities like accommodation, medical support and transportation for the arduous trek ahead.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has arrived at the site of the attacks in Pahalgam. Shah had travelled to Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city, on Tuesday evening to hold an emergency security meeting.

Yogita Limaye
South Asia & Afghanistan correspondent

At the Srinagar airport, tour operators say there is a rush of domestic tourists trying to leave Kashmir after the Pahalgam attack. We saw vehicles streaming into the airport.

But I did see groups of domestic tourists on my flight from Mumbai who had not cancelled their plans and were still coming into Kashmir.

Meanwhile, colleagues who were on a flight from Delhi said their flight was quite empty.

Families of the victims have been speaking to the media, sharing the ordeal their loved ones faced as the horrific attack unfolded.

Here's what we know about some of the victims:

Manjunath Rao, 47, a businessman from the southern state of Karnataka who was visiting Pahalgam with his wife and son was reportedly killed by a single gunshot to his head.

Syed Hussain Shah, a resident of Anantnag district in Kashmir who took tourists on horse rides to earn a living, was the sole breadwinner for his family, his mother told ANI news agency.

Image source, ANI

Bitan Adhikary, 40, a tech worker from the eastern state of West Bengal who worked in Florida and had returned to his hometown earlier this month to visit his family.

Shubham Dwivedi, who got married in February, was visiting the resort with his wife.

Vinay Narwal, a 26-year-old officer with the Indian Navy, who had married just seven days before the attack and was visiting the meadow with his wife.

Manish Ranjan, an intelligence officer from the northern state of Bihar, was also among the victims. He was reportedly shot dead in front of his wife and children.

Five people from the western state of Maharashtra were also killed in the attacks, the state's Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in a post on X on Tuesday.

There has been no official confirmation of how many people have died in the horrific attack, but a senior member of the state government told the BBC that 26 people have died and several others have been injured.

According to reports in the Indian media, at least two of the deceased were foreigners – one from Nepal and the other from UAE.

The dead also included a local man, identified as a horse rider and the sole breadwinner for his family.

Yogita Limaye
South Asia & Afghanistan correspondent

There is tight security outside the police control room in Srinagar, where the bodies of the victims of the Pahalgam attack have been kept.

Journalists and media personnel are not being allowed inside the building.

But we’re seeing the families of the victims, along with the bodies, being brought out in buses and ambulances. They are being transferred to the airport from where they will be flown out to their home cities.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

There’s been no official confirmation yet on who carried out Tuesday’s brutal attack in Pahalgam.

However, media reports citing federal intelligence sources say The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadowy outfit linked to Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, may have claimed responsibility.

The group apparently emerged after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, starting as an online propaganda arm before reportedly turning into an active militant network, the reports say.

The Indian government designated it a terrorist group in 2023, external, accusing it of recruiting youth, pushing terror content online, and smuggling arms into Jammu and Kashmir.

It said "the activities of TRF are detrimental for the national security and sovereignty of India".

"This appears to be an offshoot group linked to Lashkar, likely trying to keep some distance while still signalling it’s active," military historian Srinath Raghavan told the BBC.

"For groups like these, when they're constrained, they carry out attacks to show their backers they’re still ‘in business’ - a way to prove they remain a usable instrument."

For now, the official silence keeps the full picture unclear - adding to the unease after one of the deadliest strikes on civilians in recent years.

There is a shutdown across Indian-administered Kashmir, where schools, business and shops have been closed. The BBC's Yogita Limaye reports from outside the airport in Srinagar city, where an uneasy calm prevails.

We're now hearing from Pakistan's foreign ministry in what is the first official reaction on the attack from India's neighbour.

In a statement, a foreign ministry spokesperson expressed condolences to the victims of the attack and said it was "concerned at the loss of tourists' lives".

The spokesperson also wished "the injured a speedy recovery".

Read more about why Kashmir is a flashpoint between India and Pakistan here

Image source, Getty Images

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has cut short her official visit to the US following the attack in Pahalgam.

Sitharaman condemned the attack, saying "there are no words to express grief".

The finance minister was on an 11-day trip to the US and Peru to participate in meetings of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting. She is set to return to India soon.

PM Modi had also cut short his official trip to Saudi Arabia and returned to India on Wednesday morning.

People in Anantnag and Baramulla held a candlelight vigil on Tuesday night to condemn the violence and demand justice for the victims.

We're now getting fresh visuals from Srinagar - Kashmir's largest city - where Home Minister Amit Shah has just paid tribute to the victims of yesterday's attack.

Shah, who arrived in Srinagar on Tuesday evening, is expected to travel to Pahalgam later today.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to Delhi where he held a brief meeting to take stock of the situation.

Image source, ANI