On 10 July 2017, the first Monday of the month of Shraavana, 8 Hindu civilian pilgrims on the way from Amarnath Temple in Kashmir Valley, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, were killed in a terror attack. The pilgrims mostly belonged to the Indian state of Gujarat. Eight people were killed and at least 18 people were injured in the attack.
Background
The 48-day July–August annual Hindu pilgrimage, undertaken by up to 600,000 or more pilgrims to the -high glacial Amarnath cave shrine of iced stalagmite Shiv linga at in Himalayas, is called Amarnath Yatra. It begins with a mountainous trek from the Nunwan and Chandanwari base camps at Pahalgam and reaches the cave-shrine after night halts at Sheshnag Lake and Panchtarni camps.
The yatra is both a way of earning revenue by the state government by imposing tax on pilgrims, and a way of making a living for the local Shia Muslim Bakarwal-Gujjars by taking a portion of the revenue and by offering services to the Hindu pilgrims, and this source of income has been threatened by the Islamist Kashmiri Sunni militant groups who have banned and attacked the yatra numerous times, as well as by recent massacres of at least 59 people prior to July 2017 on this yatra, causing deaths of mostly Hindu pilgrims, in addition to at least 10 Muslim civilians, and several more Muslims among security forces.
Previous incidents
Prior to this incident, terrorists have attacked the Amaranath yatra at least 3 times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, killing at least 54 Hindu pilgrims and injuring at least another 105 people, all unarmed, and at least 10 Muslim civilian support service providers, and at least 6 security personnel.
On 2 August 2000, Hizbul Mujahideen (designated a terrorist organisation by India, European Union and United States,) massacred at least 32 Hindu pilgrims and injured at least 60 people in a two-hour long indiscriminate shoot out at Nunwan base camp in Anantnag district, causing the death of 21 unarmed Hindu pilgrims and 7 unarmed Muslim shopkeepers, and 3 security force officers. This attack on Amarnath yatra was part of the larger 1 and 2 August 2000 Kashmir massacre in 5 separate coordinated terrorist attacks that killed at least 89 (official count) to 105 people (as reported by PTI), and injured at least 62 more.
On 20 July 2001, a terrorist threw two grenades and fired indiscriminately on a pilgrim night camp at Sheshnag Lake en route Amarnath shrine, killing at least 13 and injured another 15 people. Those killed included 5 unarmed Hindu male pilgrims, 3 unarmed Hindu female pilgrims, 3 unarmed Muslim civilians providing support services to pilgrims, and 2 security officials.
On 6 August 2002, terrorists from al-Mansuriyan, a front group of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, massacred 9 pilgrims and injured 30 near Nunwan pilgrimage base camp.
On 7 July 2017, terrorists attacked a civilian bus that was on the Baltal-Jammu route where movement of vehicles is not allowed after 7 p.m. due to the militants' threats. A tyre of the bus was punctured, taking two to two and a half hours to repair. Pilgrims are not allowed to travel on the route without road-opening parties and security escorts which were withdrawn at around 7:30 p.m. The bus was also not registered with the Amarnath shrine board.
Attack
After arrests of three locals, described as "co-conspirators" in August 2017 who had provided logistical support to the attackers, Munir Khan, IGP (Kashmir), stated that four Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were involved in it. He said they had planned to carry out an attack a day earlier but there was no movement of CRPF or Amarnath pilgrim vehicle in isolation. He stated it was purely an act of terrorism carried out with the motive of spreading fear. He added that a pilgrim vehicle was there on the day of the attack so they attacked it, had it been a CRPF vehicle, they would have attacked it as well. He further clarified that the attack was first aimed at the police post in the area but unfortunately the bus also came under attack.