Terror attacks had dipped in the Valley following the effective abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. The separatist narrative, enabled and sustained by Pakistan, that peace was impossible in Kashmir, was negated by the picture of a resurgent economy and a local population welcoming of tourists. Tuesday’s attackers want to puncture this scenario and push the region back into an abyss of fear and desperation.

The attacks come at a time US vice-president JD Vance is visiting India. In 2000, LeT carried out a massacre of Sikh residents of Chattisinghpora in J&K, ahead of then US president Bill Clinton’s visit to India. The Pahalgam attack also needs to be seen against the backdrop of shrill talk among the Pakistani army brass that is smarting from the hijacking of the Jaffar Express train by Baloch separatists in March, and its own declining popularity for manipulating the political processes. With the US’s Donald Trump administration in no mood to entertain Pakistan’s claims regarding Kashmir, Beijing increasingly concerned about Islamabad’s failure in stopping Baloch separatists, and New Delhi uninterested in dialogue without the dismantling of the terror infrastructure, Rawalpindi — and consequently Islamabad — is on the defensive.

This desperation is showing in attacking tourists — something that happened sparingly even in the heydays of militancy. It also shows that Pakistan remains the biggest enemy of normalcy in Kashmir. The government’s response should be strong and swift, but without compromising on the gains made in expanding civilian freedoms and normalcy. It drew a red line after the 2019 Pulwama attacks. This attack too, is likely to be another defining moment in the turbulent history of Kashmir.