India’s claim of killing two “terrorists” at the Line of Control (LoC) by targeting civilians from Azad Kashmir has been rejected by local residents, as reported by national media.
According to details, on Tuesday, 26 tourists were killed and 12 injured in a shooting by unknown assailants in Pahalgam, a tourist destination in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian authorities had claimed that among the dead were two foreign tourists and an officer of the Indian Navy. The foreign nationals were from Italy and Israel. Following the incident, Indian forces martyred two citizens from Azad Kashmir at the LoC, claiming they were terrorists.
However, residents of the area have rejected this claim by Indian forces. Locals said that the two individuals killed by Indian forces were elderly men who had gone out to search for their livestock.
They stated that Malik Farooq and Muhammad Deen were around 60 years old. The whole area knew them; their families have lived there for centuries, and both men were livestock herders.
Meanwhile, after the Pahalgam attack, the people of Kashmir took to the streets to protest against the false claims made by Indian media. The Kashmiri people rejected the Indian false flag operation, saying that all Indian TV channels are focused on Hindu-Muslim narratives.
They questioned what the Indian intelligence agencies were doing at the time of the attack, noting that such agencies have previously been behind similar attacks themselves. It is noteworthy that India has used the Pahalgam attack as a pretext to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan and to announce the closure of the Attari border checkpoint.