Kashmir Bloodshed Targets Modi's Global Gains

D Vance, the Vice President of the United States, arrived in India on 19 April, following a solemn stop at the Vatican, where he became the final high-ranking official to meet the late Pope Francis—an emblematic rebel of the modern Church whose death this week marked the end of a transformative papacy.

- BY NILANTHA ILANGAMUWA

Vance's arrival was framed as an endorsement of India's ascendant geopolitical status, punctuated by public tributes to Prime Minister Modi and the deepening of the Indo-American strategic alliance. This diplomatic spectacle was further amplified by the 9 April extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, representing a rare convergence of legal triumphs between the two nations in their fight against terrorism. Yet, this orchestration of diplomatic victories quickly unraveled, as within days of these high-profile engagements, Kashmir—a region central to India's evolving image was once again thrust into global headlines, not by progress, but by tragedy. On 22 April, a massacre in the idyllic meadows of Baisaran near Pahalgam, once heralded as the face of Kashmir’s resurgence, accentuated a brutal paradox: the strategic narrative of peace and prosperity was violently interrupted by terror, forcing the world to confront the enduring volatility of the region at a moment when India appeared poised for diplomatic consolidation.

On 22 April 2025, a massacre unfolded in the meadows of Baisaran near Pahalgam, often romanticized as “India’s Switzerland.” What had become a symbol of India’s Kashmir renaissance—a picturesque site of family vacations, film shoots, and summer retreats—was reduced to a field of carnage as unidentified gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists. At least 28 civilians, mostly men, were methodically executed, while women and children were reportedly spared. The attack was not merely an act of terror, but a deeply choreographed intervention in India’s domestic and international narrative regarding Kashmir. It sought not just to kill, but to provoke, destabilize, and symbolically mutilate the emerging image of a peaceful, integrated, and economically flourishing region.