Amritsar, April 23 The Akal Takht's officiating Jathedar, Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, on Wednesday condemned the attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
Expressing grief over the incident, he offered prayers before the Akal Purakh, seeking eternal peace for the departed souls and strength for the bereaved families to accept His will.
He also prayed that such inhumane acts should never occur anywhere in the world and that peace and harmony should prevail across the nation and the world.
Jathedar Gargaj said the Pahalgam tragedy deeply pained him and reminded him of the March 2000 massacre in Chittisinghpura in Kashmir in which 35 Sikhs were killed, but the truth was "yet to come to light".
Echoing similar sentiments, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) President Harjinder Singh Dhami said: "This inhuman and brutal act had deeply hurt the values of society."
At least 26 tourists were killed on Tuesday after gunmen opened fire on innocent civilians in Baisaran in Jammu and Kashmir. According to eyewitness accounts, a group of heavily armed terrorists emerged from the nearby forests and opened indiscriminate fire on civilians, most of whom were tourists. Baisran is a small meadow three to four km from the Pahalgam market, and tourists take horses to reach the place as there is no motorable road to it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday morning after cutting his Saudi Arabia trip short due to the terror attack. He had a brief meeting with NSA Ajit Doval, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri at the airport. PM Modi strongly condemned the terror attack on Tuesday, stating that the guilty will be brought to justice and reaffirming India’s "unshakable" resolve to fight terrorism.
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