Militants kill at least 26 tourists at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said, in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.

Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for the attack in Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam. At least three dozen people were wounded, many of them seriously, according to two senior police officers.

“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

The two officers said at least four militants fired at dozens of tourists from close range. Most of the killed tourists were Indian, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy.

At at least 24 bodies were collected in the aftermath of the attack and two people died while being taken for medical treatment. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police and soldiers were searching for the attackers.

“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” India’s home minister, Amit Shah, wrote on social media. He arrived in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and convened a meeting with top security officials.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cutting short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to New Delhi early Wednesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and stressed that “attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Kashmir’s top religious cleric, said on social media that “such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir, which welcomes visitors with love and warmth.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting India, called it a “devastating terrorist attack.” He added on social media: “Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack.”

U.S. President Donald Trump noted on social media the “deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against terrorism.” Other global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, condemned the attack.

“The United States stands with India,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Kashmir has seen a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.

Tensions have been simmering as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations. But despite tourists flocking to Kashmir in huge numbers for its Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, they have not been targeted.

The region has drawn millions of visitors who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and claimed it as a sign of normalcy returning.

The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, while condemning the attack, said Modi's government should take accountability instead of making “hollow claims on the situation being normal” in the region.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

In March 2000, at least 35 civilians were shot and killed in a southern village in Kashmir while then-U.S. President Bill Clinton was visiting India. It was the region's deadliest attack in the past couple of decades.

Violence has ebbed in recent times in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion. Fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region, including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks.

Associated Press writers Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, Michelle Price in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

An Indian army helicopter patrols above Pahalgam a day after militants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists near the town, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian security officer patrols a shopping area in Pahalgam a day after militants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists near the town, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian police officers stand guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Paramedics carry a wounded tourist on a stretcher at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian police officers stands guard at a check point near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian police officer stops a tourist vehicle near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian tourists who were stuck on the road heading to Pahalgam leave after police ordered them to vacate the area, following an incident where assailants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists visiting Pahalgam in Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers patrol in armored vehicle near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Anshuman Gaikwad, an Indian tourist browsing his phone at a restaurant after he was stopped from heading to Pahalgam in South Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian army officers stands guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers stand guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security personnel stand guard in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian security officer stands guard in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers stand guard on a highway in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian security officer stands guard in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers patrol in armored vehicles near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers stands guard at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian tourist, right, with blood-soaked trousers speaks on the phone as she arrives at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian tourist woman talk to her cell phone as Jammu and Kashmir Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel patrol at a Dal Lake in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Indian tourists take pictures near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

An Indian policeman checks a bag of a civilain near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Paramedic carry a wounded tourist on a stretcher at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Paramedic carries a wounded tourist on a stretcher at a hospital in Anantnag after assailants indiscriminately fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian paramilitary soldier chat with tourists near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Indian paramilitary soldiers guard near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Jammu and Kashmir Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel patrol at a busy market in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Indian paramilitary soldiers guard near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

An Indian paramilitary soldier guard as tourists and locals people walk near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Indian tourists rests on a bench as policemen guard near a clock tower at city centre in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Tuesday, April. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Friday called on members of the public to send any video or other evidence in the fatal shooting of Renee Good directly to her office, challenging the Trump administration's decision to leave the investigation solely to the FBI.

Moriarty said that although her office has collaborated effectively with the FBI in past cases, she is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to bar state and local agencies from playing any role in the investigation into Wednesday's killing of Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

She also said that despite the Trump administration’s insistence that the officer who shot Good has complete legal immunity, that isn’t the case.

“We do have jurisdiction to make this decision with what happened in this case,” she said at a news conference. “It does not matter that it was a federal law enforcement agent.”

Moriarty said her office would post a link for the public to submit footage of the shooting, even though she acknowledged that she wasn't sure what legal outcome submissions might produce.

The prosecutor's announcement came on a third day of Minneapolis protests over Good's killing and a day after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.

Good's wife, Becca Good, released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday saying, “kindness radiated out of her.”

"On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns," Becca Good said.

“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him,” she wrote. “That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”

The reaction to the Good's shooting was immediate in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of protesters converging on the shooting scene and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

On Thursday night, hundreds marched in freezing rain down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs saying, “Killer ice off our streets." And on Friday, protesters were out again demonstrating outside of a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the immigration crackdown that began Tuesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barricades outside the facility Friday.

City workers, meanwhile, removed makeshift barricades made of old Christmas trees and other debris that had been blocking the streets near the scene of Good's shooting. Officials said they would leave up a shrine to the 37-year-old mother of three.

The Portland shootings happened outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. Federal immigration officers shot and wounded a man and woman, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Venezuela nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who were inside a vehicle, and their conditions weren't immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at a local ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that officers had arrested several protesters after asking the to get out of a street to allow traffic to flow.

Just as it did following Good's shooting, DHS defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It wasn't immediately clear if the shootings were captured on video, as Good's was.

The Minneapolis shooting happened on the second day of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.

The government is also shifting immigration officers to Minneapolis from sweeps in Louisiana, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. This represents a pivot, as the Louisiana crackdown that began in December had been expected to last into February.

Good's death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests happening in other places, including Texas, California, Detroit and Missouri.

In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a woman held a sign that said, “Stop Trump’s Gestapo,” as hundreds of people marched to the White House. Protesters in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin, banged on the walls of an ICE facility. And a man in Los Angeles burned an American flag in front of federal detention center.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying videos show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”

Several bystanders captured footage of Good's killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.

The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE, according to records obtained by AP.

Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle whose driver was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. Ross was dragged and fired his Taser. A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful.

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian and Safiyah Riddle in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters' shadows are cast on the street near law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

An American flag burns outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Two protesters are lit by a police light as they walk outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Protesters are arrested by federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters sit on a barrier that is being assembled outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters stand off against law enforcement outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters chant and march during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, after she was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino arrives as protesters gather outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

A protester pours water in their eye after confronting law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)