SRINAGAR, India: Hoteliers are switching on the lights to welcome a trickle of visitors back to the once-booming resort towns of India-controlled Kashmir, a year after militants opened fire on holidaymakers in an attack that killed 26 people.
The disputed Muslim-majority region, which India and Pakistan both claim in full, used to attract millions of Indian visitors flocking to take in its famed wooden houseboats on Dal Lake in the centre of the main city Srinagar.
However, dozens of tourist sites across the Himalayan territory closed for security reasons after one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in decades in Indian-run Kashmir on April 22, 2025, which killed mainly Hindu men.
A year on, hoteliers are still feeling the repercussions.
"It used to be full for months on end before the attack," said Younis Khandey, the owner of a 10-room guesthouse in the resort town of Pahalgam, near the site of the attack.
India blamed Pakistan for backing the gunmen, charges Islamabad rejected.
A shadowy group called The Resistance Front (TRF) -- described by the United States as a "proxy" of UN-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba -- initially claimed responsibility for the attack. The group later retracted its claim.
Two weeks later, anger between India and Pakistan erupted into a four-day conflict in which the nuclear-armed neighbours deployed drones, missiles and fighter jets, killing at least 70 people on both sides.
'Not back on track'
The small mountain meadow of Baisaran, where the gunmen stormed out of pine forests and fired on crowds, remains closed.
Other sites are now open, but travel operators say bookings are still far down from usual.
"Business has been down about 60 per cent, even after many spots were reopened for tourists," said travel agent Tanvir Ahmed. "But arrivals are picking up again now."
Before the attack, Kashmir welcomed hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims visiting sacred shrines.
In 2024, a record number of more than 23 million tourists -- including 65,000 foreigners -- visited the region of some 12 million people, according to the Indian government.
Statistics for 2025 have not been released in the wake of the attack.
"The tourism sector is not back on track yet," said Syed Qamar Sajjad, director of the region's tourism department.
India has at least 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in Kashmir.
Rebel groups opposed to Indian rule of Kashmir waged an insurgency -- now largely crushed -- since 1989, and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of soldiers, civilians and militants. - AFP
