Terrorism, by its very nature, is a brutal equalizer. It spares no one—neither Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, nor Christian—when its violence strikes. The devastation it leaves behind transcends faith, ethnicity, and borders, uniting victims in shared grief. Yet, the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, where 28 people, including two foreign tourists, were gunned down by militants linked to The Resistance Front (TRF), has reignited a troubling question: If terrorism is blind to religion, why do such attacks often seem to target specific communities or stoke communal divides? This editorial explores the paradox of terrorism’s indiscriminate nature and the calculated motives behind incidents like Pahalgam, drawing on the past decade of India’s experience to uncover why these tragedies persist.
In This Article :
The Indiscriminate Face of Terrorism
At its core, terrorism seeks to disrupt, instill fear, and destabilize. The 2019 Pulwama attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel, targeted security forces regardless of their faith. The 2023 Dantewada bombing in Chhattisgarh, claiming 10 lives, was executed by Maoists with no regard for the religious identities of their victims. Similarly, the 2024 Bengaluru cafe blast injured nine people in a cosmopolitan city, striking a diverse crowd. The Pahalgam massacre, targeting tourists in a scenic valley, spared women but killed men of varying backgrounds, including foreigners, proving that terrorism’s immediate impact respects no creed.
Data reinforces this. According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal, Jammu and Kashmir alone saw 2,217 fatalities from terrorist violence between 2015 and 2024, including civilians, security personnel, and militants, with victims spanning all communities. The 2008 Mumbai attacks, though outside this decade, remain a stark example: 166 dead across religions, from Indian Hindus and Muslims to Jewish and Christian foreigners. Terrorism’s body count is a grim testament to its blindness.
Why Pahalgam Feels Targeted
Yet, the Pahalgam attack, like others before it, carries a perception of selective intent. The militants, affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen, struck a tourist hotspot, a symbol of Jammu and Kashmir’s economic revival post-2019. The valley-wide shutdown that followed, coupled with Bollywood’s vocal outrage and global condemnation, underscored a narrative of deliberate provocation. Reports suggest the attackers spared women, focusing on male tourists, which some interpret as an attempt to maximize fear among visitors and disrupt the region’s fragile peace. So, why does an act of terror, ostensibly blind to religion, feel so pointed?
The answer lies in the strategic motives of terrorist groups. While their violence is indiscriminate in execution, their targets are often chosen to exploit existing fault lines—religious, political, or cultural. In Jammu and Kashmir, groups like TRF and JeM capitalize on the region’s complex history of separatism, fueled by the revocation of Article 370 in 2019 and subsequent demographic shifts. The Reasi attack of June 2024, which killed nine Hindu pilgrims, and now Pahalgam, appear designed to inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions, deter tourism, and challenge India’s narrative of normalcy in the region. Pakistan’s alleged support for such groups—denied by Islamabad but consistently claimed by India—adds a geopolitical layer, with attacks like Pahalgam aimed at embarrassing India on the global stage.
The Role of Perception and Propaganda
Terrorist groups thrive on perception. By targeting high-profile sites or communities, they amplify their impact through media and public reaction. The Uri attack of 2016, which killed 19 soldiers, and Pulwama in 2019 were not religious in their immediate targeting but were framed by militants as strikes against India’s “occupation” of Kashmir, a narrative that resonates with some disenfranchised locals. Posts on X following Pahalgam reveal a polarized discourse: some users decry the attack as an assault on all Indians, while others, echoing Pakistani Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks, frame it as a “revolution” against India’s policies. This propaganda fuels the illusion of religious targeting, even when the victims are diverse.
The reality is that terrorists exploit religious and cultural symbols to provoke division. The 2024 Reasi attack on Hindu pilgrims was a clear attempt to stoke communal unrest, yet the perpetrators, TRF, also killed Muslims in other operations. Similarly, Maoist attacks in Chhattisgarh, like Dantewada 2023, target tribal communities, many of whom practice indigenous faiths, showing no religious preference. The goal is chaos, not creed.
Why Does This Keep Happening?
If terrorism is blind to religion, why do attacks like Pahalgam persist? Several factors converge:
- Geopolitical Agendas: India’s accusations of Pakistan’s role in sponsoring groups like LeT and JeM point to a proxy war. The Pahalgam attack, masterminded by LeT’s Saifullah Kasuri, aligns with this pattern, aiming to destabilize India’s control over Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan’s denial, coupled with its own terrorism challenges, complicates resolution.
- Local Grievances: The 2019 revocation of Article 370 reduced violence initially but alienated sections of Kashmir’s population. Local recruitment, as seen in Pulwama’s Adil Ahmad Dar, reflects how groups exploit economic despair and political disenfranchisement, regardless of religion.
- Intelligence and Security Gaps: Critics, including AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, labeled Pahalgam an “intelligence failure.” The 2016 Pathankot and 2019 Pulwama attacks exposed similar lapses. Militants’ ability to infiltrate tourist areas like Pahalgam highlights the need for better coordination.
- Global and Regional Instability: The rise of groups like TRF, an LeT offshoot, reflects broader trends in global jihadism, with Afghanistan’s instability post-2021 providing fertile ground for recruitment. India’s ranking as the 13th most-affected nation on the 2022 Global Terrorism Index underscores its vulnerability.
- Communal Polarization: Terrorists thrive on division. By targeting symbols like pilgrims or tourists, they provoke outrage that can spiral into communal rhetoric, as seen in some X posts blaming specific communities. This cycle benefits their narrative of unrest.
Terrorism doesn’t see religion, but its architects exploit it to divide and destroy. The Pahalgam attack, like those in Pulwama, Uri, and Reasi, was not about faith but about power, fear, and disruption. India’s challenge is to counter this with unity, not just force. By addressing root causes, enhancing security, and rejecting communal traps, the nation can honor the memory of all victims—regardless of creed—and build a future where tragedies like Pahalgam are no longer inevitable.
-By Manoj H
