THE senseless targeted murders of 26 tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, occurred at the time when Jammu & Kashmir’s tourism industry was experiencing an unparalleled boom. For a state that has been dependent on tourism as an economic pillar for decades, the attack has not only been a security predicament but also an economic disaster of historical proportions.
This was more than an attack on civilians. This was a deliberate blow to the whole ecosystem that sustains the livelihoods of half a million Kashmiris. The Pakistan-backed terrorist attack has pulled the Valley into an economic shock, reversing years of recovery, rebuilding and investment.
Tourism: From boom to collapse
The official data had announced 2024 as a record year for Jammu & Kashmir tourism with 2.35 crore tourists, a 15-year high, higher than 2.11 crore in 2023 and 1.88 crore in 2022. These tourists were domestic, foreigners and pilgrims visiting Amarnath and Vaishno Devi shrines.
The success was attributed to enhanced infrastructure, enhanced security and sustained promotion drives by the administration. Even international confidence had been enhanced. Srinagar had hosted the May 2023 G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting, a diplomatic success that had brought over 60 countries delegates to the city.
But the Pahalgam attack has turned this trend around. More than 80% of future travel reservations have been cancelled. The crowded central streets of tourist resorts such as Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Gulmarg, Srinagar are now empty, with shut shops, vacant hotels and a general atmosphere of fear.
As per the Pahalgam Hotels and Owners Association (PHOA), the occupancy of 1,500 hotels has dropped to just 10%. At the Dal and Nigeen lakes, the houseboat occupancies have come down from as high as 90% to just below 5%. A number of owners have shut shop and laid off employees.
Ghulam Hassan, a houseboat owner at Dal Lake, tells Kashmir Central: “We had begun to recover from our earlier losses and now this disaster has hit us. If the government fails to act, most of these traditional houseboats will be lost forever now. We won’t be able to sustain further losses. Until now, tourists have belonged to us and we have belonged to them”.
Hotels, having taken bank loans to increase infrastructure in anticipation of sustained growth in tourism, are now finding it difficult to meet even basic operational expenses. Lay-offs have become rampant across the industry. Most tour operators say their whole summer season has been lost.
Sahir Farooq, the owner of Khilan Holidays Kashmir, says, “All the bookings are cancelled. Refunds are being made. There is tremendous loss. We have terminated the services of many of our educated, experienced staff. The tourism season has gone. We request the government to intervene and restore confidence among tourists”.
Public parks like Nehru Park, Lidder View Park, Aru Park and Island Park continue to remain closed, which further discourages prospects of tourist revival.
How Pakistan destroyed Kashmir in the name of brotherhood
It is a twist of contemporary geopolitics that the country most loudly asserting itself as the champion of Kashmir’s interests has, in fact, been its most dogged foe. Pakistan has, over decades, set itself up as the rescuer of Kashmiris who were seen in international circles, appealing to emotions and organising solidarity movements. But behind the veil of brotherhood is a harsh reality: Pakistan has devastated Kashmir more severely than any outside power ever could, not with mercy but with bullets, propaganda, massacres and blood money.
The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam has killed and mutilated the recent hope of Kashmiris and their new-found peace and progress. It has also proved, yet again, that Pakistan is far from being a friend of Kashmir.
Pakistan’s brotherhood rhetoric started right after 1947 and gained momentum post-1989. Slogans of support escalated into a full-fledged proxy war, orchestrated and imparted from across the border. Pakistan’s ISI trained, armed and funded terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen entered the Valley not to free Kashmir but to subjugate it to an extremist ideology.
They professed to battle for the independence of Kashmiris. In reality, they battled to serve Pakistan’s geopolitical interests, utilising the lives of young Kashmiri boys as cannon fodder and the homes of innocent people as battlegrounds. The fallout of Pakistan’s proxy war was not only lives but livelihoods.
In the early 1990s, as tourism collapsed and fear settled in, Kashmir’s previously booming economy was in a shambles. Orchards went unattended. The carpet business was hit hard as artisans ran away from war. Schools closed down for months, even years. Entrepreneurs migrated. The tourism sector, which had drawn lakhs of national and international visitors, lay almost dead. Who could they blame? Not the Indian government that tried to bring order but terror organisations backed by Pakistan and its government, filled the streets with danger, blew up schools, assassinated teachers, killed political activists and set ablaze government offices all in the name of ‘azaadi’. Pakistan did not only export weapons; it exported a culture of martyrdom, radicalisation, indoctrination and manipulation.
It brought a generation of youth that romanticised death through networks of over-ground workers (OGWs), extremist ideology, asymmetrical massive funerals and mysterious online propaganda. Young minds were indoctrinated to think that taking up a gun was a badge of honour without understanding that the very individuals urging them to do so, lived in comfort somewhere in Pakistan-administered Kashmir or across the border. This was not freedom-fighting; this was psychological warfare. The actual tragedy? It worked. For 30 years, parents buried sons and sisters wept over brothers while Pakistan showcased itself as the messiah of Kashmiri Muslims in the eyes of the world. But the reality was quite different.
Pakistan also attempted to create political surrogates in Kashmir, backing separatist leaders who grew rich, sent their sons overseas and led comfortable lives; while common Kashmiris endured curfews, cordons and anarchy.
The scrapping of Article 370 in 2019 was perceived by Pakistan as the death knell for its Kashmir venture. Desperate, it stepped up its efforts to restart militancy. But the ground had shifted.
Kashmiris, especially the youth, are starting to cut through the smokescreen. They understand that there is no future in Pakistan. Its economy is in ruin. Minorities are persecuted in Pakistan. Even in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan, locals protest against state oppression and Army atrocities.
After India targetted terror infrastructure in Pakistan on May 7, last month, Pakistan, ravaged by the kinetic action and to provide shield to the terror outfits, started shelling on the border residents residing around Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB). The shelling escalated & Pakistan initiated a series of heavy artillery and mortar attacks along the targeted civilian areas in Poonch, Rajouri, Uri and Kupwara districts. These attacks resulted in at least 13 civilian fatalities and 59 injuries, marking the most intense shelling since the 1999 Kargil War.
In Poonch’s Sukha Kattha village, five-year-old Maryam was killed in her father’s arms and her sister was injured, highlighting the indiscriminate nature of the assault. The shelling caused extensive damage to homes, schools and religious institutions. Notably, a catholic school in Poonch was struck, resulting in the deaths of two students and damaging the nearby convent. The violence forced thousands of residents to flee their homes, seeking refuge in safer areas. The government’s response included accelerated evacuation efforts and increased security measures, to protect the affected.
Livelihood lost
Back to the effect of attacks, pertinently, Kashmir’s tourism economy is not restricted to travel agencies and hotels but it sustains an elaborate network of Gig and informal workers. From pony wallahs to taxi drivers, such workers end up earning their years wages in the 5-6 months of the peak season.
Now, without tourists to transport or help, their earnings have vanished. Most of these people also have loans to service, on cars, horses and household expenses. The abrupt stripping away of a livelihood has caused a local economic crisis.
“It’s not a job; it’s survival,” says pony owner Nadeem in Gulmarg, adding: “we struggled to purchase and train the animals. Without tourists now, nothing’s left”.
Kashmiri handicrafts, the Valley’s pride, are piling up dust. The local vendors and artisans relied on tourist buying for their monsoon earnings. Presently, with negligible traffic, even the popular papier-mache shops, walnut wood craft emporia and Pashmina and Kani shawl sellers are facing difficulties.
Fruit traders and roadside vendors, specifically cherry farmers, have also taken a blow. With tourist roads deserted, sales of perishable fruits have come to a grinding halt.
“Our cherries are ready and ripe but there’s no one to sell them to,” says Ishtiyaq Ahmad, a farmer from Tangmarg, adding: “the season gave us fast cash before apple harvests. Now, even that is gone.”
Tourism contributes 7% – 9% directly to Jammu and Kashmir’s GDP but indirectly it contributes much more. It creates indirect jobs in logistics, transport, agriculture, tour and travel, gig workers and trade for every direct job in a restaurant or hotel.
As tourism collapses, these dominoes are tumbling. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Repayment of bank loans has become impossible. Development and construction activities related to tourism infrastructure have come to a halt.
A hotelier tells Kashmir Central: “This is not simply a lean season. It’s a complete breakdown post the Pahalgam attack. All the allied sectors, whether transporters, cherry growers, pony wallas, craftsmen, cab drivers or hoteliers are shattered enormously now”.
Government Response: Symbolism and Strategy
In a bold step, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had called a special cabinet meeting in Pahalgam, the location of the April 22 attack. It was the first cabinet meeting to be held outside Srinagar or Jammu in recent times, to express solidarity with local residents, victims and the families of the victims and send a stern message to perpetrators.
Abdullah also suggested a two-pronged strategy to rejuvenate tourism. First, mandating Public Sector Units (PSUs) to conduct official meetings in Kashmir. Second, holding parliamentary committee meetings in Srinagar and tourist destinations of Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing the NITI Aayog’s Governing Council meeting presided over by Prime Minister Modi last week, the CM called on the Centre to assist in restoring Kashmir’s brand image and ensuring the Valley does not go into economic despair post the Pahalgam attack.
While emergency economics are on the cards, stakeholders demand a multi-faceted approach, spanning security guarantee, loan waiver or moratorium, marketing push and industry-specific assistance.
Pakistan – far from a messiah
Presently, Kashmiris desire peace, employment, investment, education, tourism and respect. None of them have ever arrived from Pakistan. They have only got death, destruction and postponed dreams from the other side.
Pakistan, meanwhile, persists in its frustrated attempts to sabotage this process but fewer and fewer people are subscribing to its falsities. Ultimately, in the final analysis, Pakistan has done more to destroy Kashmir than to serve it. And history will not look back on this as a tale of brotherhood but as a tale of betrayal.
The Pahalgam attack was not only an attack on tourists it was an attack on Kashmir’s economy, its development and peace. Over the last five years, Kashmir had started to see a turnaround. Roads were being constructed, jobs were increasing, horticulture and agriculture was blooming and tourism was booming. It was a time of hope and optimism, with the people in Kashmir looking towards the future and leaving the past behind.
But again, violence ravaged not only lives but livelihoods. Pakistan, who usually boasts about being the champion of Kashmiri rights, has once again shown its real face not as a well-wisher but as a destructor. In assisting or facilitating terrorism in the Valley, it has again and again destroyed the economic lifeline of ordinary Kashmiris.
The April 22, 2025, Pahalgam attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists is another bleak reminder of how Pakistan’s long-term proxy war has continuously focused on Kashmir’s most crucial economic lifeline of tourism.
While the Valley was experiencing an unprecedented boom and a return towards peace, this mindless attack killed innocent lives and also paralysed the fragile tourism economy and plunged thousands of livelihoods into chaos. Time and again, Pakistan’s much-vaunted brotherhood has done nothing but harmed Kashmir, ruining every opportunity for peace through terror and violence.
Sahir, a tour guide operator adds: “They did not kill 26 individuals in Pahalgam alone but killed the hope of a booming Kashmir. They drove Kashmir back into fear, isolation and loss”.
While Kashmir tries to pick up the pieces of this economic and psychological shock, the world has to acknowledge that the actual victims of such attacks are not the immediate victims alone but the greater civilian population whose lives, aspirations and livelihood are reduced to rubble.
