Terror has no religion? Here is a list of incidents where Islamic terrorists murdered Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir, only after checking their religion

Every time an Islamic terrorist attack takes place in the country, the terror apologist machinery gets activated with their ready-made, done-to-death narrative about how these attacks have nothing to do with religion. From the Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus to the ghastly terrorist attack on Hindu tourists in Pahalgam yesterday (22nd April), the narrative is affixed to every terrorist attack that has ever taken place in Jammu and Kashmir or any other part of the country.

They use the same old whitewashing tactics of trying to evoke sympathy for terrorists and justify terrorist attacks by presenting stories about their poverty-stricken backgrounds. They use selected instances of local Muslims condemning the terrorist attacks or taking out candle marches to show Bhaichara (fraternity) to peddle their terror apologist narrative.

From the 90s till 2025, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a series of communally motivated terrorist attacks targeting the Hindus. Even a fleeting glance at the history of such terror incidents is enough for the uninitiated to know that such attacks have everything to do with religion. Here is a list of terrorist attacks that lay bare the terror apologist narrative-

1993 Kishtwar terrorist attack

On August 14, 1993, three terrorists carrying AK-47s hijacked a bus carrying Hindu passengers in the Sarthal areas of Kishtwar district in J&K. The terrorists forced the women and children to get off the bus and took all the male passengers hostage. They took the male passengers to a different location and segregated them into two groups before opening fire at them at point-blank range. All of the male passengers died. This cold-blooded murder of Hindus by terrorists marked the beginning of the spread of terrorism in the Jammu region and triggered the migration of Hindus out of the region.

1998 Wandhama massacre

On January 25, 1998, 23 Kashmiri Pandits out of a family of 24 were brutally murdered by terrorists in Wandhama town of the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmiri Pandits killed in the terrorist attack were reportedly the ones who decided to stay back after the majority of Hindus migrated. According to locals who reached the spot after hearing gunshots, 23 Kashiri Pandits were lying in a pool of blood, and a temple was set ablaze. One of the members of the family somehow managed to escape the massacre.

The survivor later said that the terrorists entered the family’s house dressed like Indian Army soldiers carrying AK-47s. They talked to the family members and gathered them in a place and shot them.

1998 Prankote and Daikote massacre of Hindus

The 1998 Wandhama massacre was followed by another horrifying terrorist attack on Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir. On the night of April 17, 1998, 29 Hindus, including 13 women and children, were brutally slaughtered and beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Prankote and Dakikote villages in Udhampur district (now in Reasi district). The Hindu villages lay on the route usually taken by Pakistani terrorists to infiltrate. A survivor reportedly said that the terrorists forced the Hindus to convert to Islam and consume beef. When the Hindus refused, the terrorists killed them. The terrorists set the houses of the slain Hindus on fire after killing them. One woman reportedly managed to escape from her house but later succumbed to burn injuries, and her body was found in a gorge.

The information about the massacre of Hindus reached the authorities after 10 hours. The security forces arrived at the scene the next day. And, it took around 48 hours after the incident for the J&K police to reach there. A police official reportedly said that the scene “resembled a ghost area, with beheaded bodies lying scattered”. Following the horrid massacre, the Hindu families living in the villages migrated en masse.

2000 Chittisinghpura massacre of Sikhs

On March 20, 2000, around 15-20 Islamic terrorists disguised as military soldiers brutally killed 36 Sikh men in the Sikh-dominated Chittisinghpora village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The incident happened hours before the visit of the then-US President Bill Clinton to India. After entering the village, the terrorists split into two groups. They barged into the two Gurudwaras – the Shaukeen Mohalla Gurudwara and the Singh Sabha Sumandri Hall Gurdwara, located 150 metres apart. They rounded up all the Sikh men in the Gurudwaras and started firing at them indiscriminately. A survivor named Nanak Singh said that terrorists masquerading as Army men lined up the Sikh men on the pretext of asking them about a group of terrorists that, they claimed, were going to enter the village. The government claimed that the targeted killing was carried out by Islamic militant groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Terrorist attacks on Amarnath Yatra

In a blood-chilling terrorist attack on the Hindu pilgrims during the Amarnath Yatra, around 89 people (media reports claimed 105) were killed in five separate coordinated attacks on 1st and 2nd August, 2000 in Anantnag and Doda districts of Jammu and Kashmir. On August 2, 2000, 32 Hindu pilgrims and 7 security officers were killed by Islamic terrorists in a two-hour-long shootout at Nunwan base camp in Anantnag district. The Hindu pilgrims were on their way to the Amarnath Cave Shrine. Around 27 migrant labourers were killed by terrorists in Mirbazar-Qazigund and Sandoo-Acchabal in Anantnag district. Terrorists also killed about 11 unarmed civilians in a village in the Doda district. The terrorist attack was carried out by Hizbul Mujahideen.

The Amarnath Yatra was again attacked by terrorists in July 2001, who infiltrated the security cordon at Sheshnag Lake and fired grenades at the Hindu pilgrims and exploded two IEDs. The attack left 8 Hindu pilgrims and 2 security personnel dead, amongst others.

Subsequently, another terrorist attack happened on the Amarnath Yatra on August 6, 2002. The terrorists belonging to al-Mansuriyan, a front group of Lashkar-e-Taiba, brutally killed 9 Hindu pilgrims at the Nunwan base camp.

This was followed by another terrorist attack on the Amarnath Yatra on July 10, 2017, a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims en route to the Amarnath Cave Shrine. 8 Hindu pilgrims were killed in the attack, while 19 were injured.

2003 Nandimarg massacre

In the gruesome Nandimarg massacre, 24 Kashmiri Pandits were slaughtered by terrorists in the Nandimarg village of Pulwama district on March 23, 2003. The attack was carried out by terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba who came dressed as military personnel. The victims, including 11 men, 11 women and 2 boys, were brought out of their houses and shot dead.

2006 Doda massacre

In the infamous Doda massacre, 54 Hindus were brutally killed by Islamic terrorists in two separate attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Doda and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir on April 30, 2006. In the first attack, the terrorists, dressed as Army personnel, lined up around 22 Hindu villagers, mostly shepherds and their families, and opened fire at them in Thawa village in Kulhand area of Doda district. The victims included a 3-year-old girl. The doctor who asked to conduct the postmortem of the dead bodies reportedly suffered a heart attack seeing the condition of the bodies.

In the terrorist attack that happened the same day in the Lalon Galla village in the Basantgarh area of the Udhampur district. The terrorists abducted 35 Hindu shepherds from the village and gunned them down.

2021 killing of a school principal and a teacher by terrorists

On October 7, 2021, terrorists killed a principal and a teacher in a school in Srinagar. Principal Satinder Kaur and teacher Deepak Chand died after they were shot at point-blank range at the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Idgah, Sangam in Srinagar. Satinder Kaur belonged to the minority Sikh community, while Deepak Chand belonged to the minority community of Kashmiri Pandits. They were selectively killed for their religion, as the terrorists had separated them from the Muslim teachers before shooting at them.

The terrorist attacks mentioned above leave no doubt about the religious motivation behind them. All these attacks were communally motivated, wherein Hindus were selectively targeted and killed by the Islamic terrorists. And yet, the religious motivation behind such attacks never finds a place in the public or political discourse around such terrorist attacks. The debates in the aftermath of such attacks are always centred on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘why’ of the attack. From governments to security forces to even the victims, everyone is blamed except the terrorists and the ideology that motivates them to take lives in such a cold-blooded manner. The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam is no exception.

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