Sectarian precision, strategic timing: What Pahalgam massacre reveals about Pakistan’s proxy playbook

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) Just when Kashmir had begun to breathe in the air of normalcy -its scenic valleys echoing with the chatter of tourists, its streets calm and welcoming, and international delegates arriving for the G-20 summit -- terror once again clawed its way back into the Valley. In the picturesque town of Pahalgam, that fragile peace was shattered on April 22. In what is now being described as one of the most brutal terrorist attacks on civilians in recent years, 26 people were killed in a cold-blooded assault on a group of Indian tourists. The survivors shared details of chilling barbarity. They told media that the attackers, calm and deliberate, demanded identification, segregating victims by religion. Hindus were singled out, lined up, and executed at point-blank range, they told the media.

One woman recalled watching her husband shot in the head for nothing more than his identity. Instead of fleeing after the initial shots, the attackers stayed back, firing into the crowd with cruelty, ensuring maximum terror and damage. This was not just a terror attack -- it was a message, a strategic and ideological assault. The intent was crystal clear -- to spread fear, fracture harmony, and draw global attention to Kashmir once more under a bloodstained lens. And as always, the shadow behind the gunmen was unmistakable -- Pakistan's military establishment, which has long weaponised terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

Officials and intelligence agencies have drawn chilling parallels between the Pahalgam massacre and earlier terror attacks orchestrated to coincide with major diplomatic events in India.

The timing of this attack was no coincidence -- it occurred during the visit of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance to India.

The pattern echoes the March 2000 massacre in Chittisinghpura, when 36 Sikhs were murdered on the eve of then US President Bill Clinton’s state visit, and the February 1999 killings during former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Lahore outreach.

This deliberate sabotage of peace talks, and diplomatic progress has become a cruel hallmark of Pakistan's playbook in the region.

The attack in Pahalgam was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), an armed proxy group believed to be a shadow outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The formation of terrorists included six operatives -- two of them local Kashmiris who had crossed into Pakistan in 2017 for training and returned with deadly skillsets.

The remaining four were foreign militants, backed and armed by LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). According to Indian intelligence, these attackers were part of the last major infiltration batch and had been hiding in the Pir Panjal Range, a rugged and strategically critical zone dividing Jammu and Kashmir. The area remains a hub for highly trained terrorist units with cross-border links. Currently, around 60 active foreign terrorists operate in the Kashmir Valley -- 35 affiliated with LeT and TRF, and 25 with JeM and other groups.

The brutal nature of the Pahalgam massacre shows a shifting strategy.

With 90 per cent of Pakistansponsored terrorists already eliminated in counter-terror operations, the remaining fringe is striking with heightened desperation and precision.

As Indian forces push them to the margins, Pakistan, through its deep-state operatives, appears to be intensifying its efforts to stoke large-scale violence and instability.

The attack also came just days after Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir delivered a provocative speech at the Overseas Pakistani Convention, where he referred to Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein” and evoked the two-nation theory -- a direct challenge to India's sovereignty. Intelligence agencies believe this speech wasn’t rhetorical. It was a signal. With Pakistan’s economy in freefall, its civil-military balance deeply fractured, and public trust in the army at historic lows, Munir needed to rally internal support and restore the military’s image. The result -- a gruesome, calculated act of terrorism meant to project power abroad and consolidate authority at home.