The blood spilled on the pine-covered slopes of Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, is not just the blood of 28 innocent tourists gunned down in cold blood—it is the blood of a collective global failure. It is the blood of moral compromise, of political expediency, and of a cowardice that continues to embolden Islamic terrorists across the globe.
Once again, Kashmir—a land known for its beauty, resilience, and history—was desecrated by an act of pure evil. Militants affiliated with The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, ambushed a group of unarmed tourists. They didn’t ask for money. They didn’t hijack a vehicle. They didn’t seek any negotiations. They came with one intention: to kill, and to kill brutally.
Among the victims were men, women, and children from different parts of India and two foreign nationals. They had come to experience the tranquility of the valley, not to become martyrs in a never-ending war fuelled by religious fanaticism. Some survivors recounted the militants forcing people to recite Islamic verses to determine who would live and who would die. Others recalled being told to “Go tell Modi,” before witnessing their loved ones executed. What kind of ideology justifies this?
This isn’t resistance. This isn’t a political struggle. This is terrorism rooted in Islamist extremism. And the world has grown frighteningly numb to it.
We must ask the question: how did we get here? How did the world become so comfortably apathetic to Islamic terrorism?
The answer lies in decades of hypocrisy, diplomatic double standards, and the refusal to call a spade a spade. When Islamic terror strikes the West, the outrage is instant, loud, and often leads to sweeping counter-terrorism action. When it strikes India, Nigeria, Israel, or any other non-Western nation, the response is muted, riddled with “context,” and often followed by commentary that dangerously leans toward justification.
This selective outrage is not just offensive—it’s deadly.
How many more attacks like Pahalgam will it take for the international community to accept that this is not about Kashmir, Gaza, or Afghanistan? This is a battle against a radical ideology that sees anyone who doesn’t bow to its dogma as expendable. It targets Hindus in India, Jews in Israel, Christians in Africa, and even fellow Muslims who don’t conform.
Let’s stop pretending. Islamic terrorism is not the result of poverty. It is not the result of alienation. It is the product of indoctrination, hatred, and a deeply embedded belief in religious supremacy.
And what about Pakistan—the breeding ground of this hatred? The same Pakistan that harboured Osama bin Laden. The same Pakistan whose military and intelligence services have historically played puppeteer to the very terrorists who wreak havoc in Kashmir.
The Pahalgam attackers were linked to The Resistance Front. TRF is not a fringe group—it is a strategic rebranding of Lashkar-e-Taiba, aimed at giving a fresh coat of paint to the same rusted machinery of jihad. TRF emerged post-2019 to mask its Pakistani roots and create a localised Kashmiri narrative. But the money, the weapons, and the training? Still flowing from across the border.
And yet, despite overwhelming evidence of state complicity, how has the world responded? With aid, with military equipment, with diplomatic engagement. Pakistan plays both arsonist and firefighter on the global stage, and no one calls its bluff. It’s high time Pakistan is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism—because that’s exactly what it is.
But to think this issue is limited to South Asia would be naïve. From the streets of London and Paris to the churches of Nigeria and the kibbutzim of southern Israel, Islamic terrorism has claimed lives in every corner of the world. The ideology is the same. The methods may differ, but the core belief—of jihad against the “infidel”—remains unchanged.
Why is it that we still hesitate to speak openly about this? Why does the world continue to tiptoe around Islamic terrorism while being brutally honest about every other form of violence? Why do world leaders fall over themselves to condemn Islamophobia, yet cannot even utter the phrase “Islamic terror” without qualifiers?
This double standard is costing lives.
Let’s be clear: this is not a war against Muslims. It is a war against radical Islam—a twisted interpretation of a faith that uses religion as a weapon. Many Muslims around the world are victims of this ideology themselves. But until moderate Muslim voices are empowered, and the hardline clerics, radical preachers, and terror financiers are held accountable, this war cannot be won.
The war on terror has been fought militarily, but not ideologically. That is the greatest mistake of our times. We bomb hideouts but let hate speech fester in mosques. We strike drone targets but let foreign-funded madrasas spread venom unchecked. We track the foot soldiers but ignore the digital imams radicalizing the next generation online.
Until we fight the ideology, we are only pruning the tree—we are not uprooting it.
India has faced Islamic terrorism for decades. From the 1993 Mumbai blasts to the 26/11 attacks to the Pahalgam massacre—our soil has soaked in the blood of thousands. And yet, India has responded with resilience, not revenge. But how long can restraint be mistaken for weakness?
India’s fight is not just its own. It is the frontline of the global battle against jihadist terror. The world must stand with India not out of sympathy, but out of the understanding that a bullet fired in Pahalgam echoes in Paris, Tel Aviv, and New York.
Enough is enough.
The world must wake up. The Pahalgam massacre should not be another fleeting headline. It should be a turning point. A moment of reckoning.
Every nation that values human life must join hands to dismantle not just the terror cells, but the ecosystem that nurtures them. That means cutting financial lifelines, shutting down radical preachers, confronting complicit states, and standing up against the growing normalization of terror in the name of political correctness.
Because if we don’t act now, the blood spilled in Pahalgam will be only a prelude to more massacres waiting to happen.
How many more must die before we declare—enough?
