Bhopal/Indore, Apr 23 (PTI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Wednesday termed the Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir as a “cowardly act of Pakistan” and asserted the entire country is united in giving a response to the strike.

He expressed grief over the loss of innocent lives in the attack in which an Indore resident was also killed.

Terrorists struck a prime tourist location in Pahalgam in south Kashmir on Tuesday, killing at least 26 people, mostly holiday-makers from other states.

“This is a cowardly act of Pakistan… The whole country is united to respond to this cowardly act of Pakistan and its ‘picchlaggu’ (hangers-on). Our government is moving ahead with a very good plan. We all will pray to Baba Mahakal (Lord Mahakaleshwar) that no such cowardly act happens again in the future,” the CM said in a statement in Bhopal.

Indore resident Sushil Nathaniel (58), who had gone to Jammu and Kashmir with his wife, daughter and son to celebrate Easter, was among the 26 people killed in the terror attack in Pahalgam.

“I pray to Baba Mahakal to give him a place in his feet,” Yadav said, mourning the death of Nathaniel.

Nathaniel was posted as a manager with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur, about 200 km from Indore, as per officials.

Meanwhile, after the deadly strike in Pahalgam, many tourists from Madhya Pradesh who are currently in Jammu and Kashmir want to return home as soon as possible and they are contacting travel agents for journey to their native places, an official of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said in Indore.

Hemendra Singh Jadon, chairman of the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh chapter of TAAI, told PTI, “After the terror attack, most of the tourists from Madhya Pradesh want to end their trip to Jammu and Kashmir before their scheduled time and return home as soon as possible.” Travel agents have been flooded with phone calls from tourists since Tuesday night,” he said.

Jadon informed that many Madhya Pradesh residents, who had planned to visit J&K in the coming days and weeks, are also calling travel agents to cancel their bookings.

He said the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the TAAI is helping tourists affected by the Pahalgam attack by arranging their travel and hotel stay. PTI MAS HWP RSY