2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre



The 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage attack on 1 and 2 August was the massacre of at least 89 to 105 people and injury to at least 62 people, in at least five different coordinated attacks by Islamist militants in Anantnag district and Doda district of Indian administered Kashmir.

Out of these, 32 were killed on 2 August in 2000 in a massacre at Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam. The dead included 21 Hindu pilgrims, 7 local Muslim shopkeepers and 3 security officers. 7 other people were also injured.

Details
A total of 89 people (official count) to 105 (as reported by PTI) were killed and at least 62 were injured in five separate coordinated terror attacks, including the following partial count on the morning of 3 August 2000.


 * On 2 August, at least 32 people were killed, who were mostly unarmed civilians. 21 were Hindu pilgrims, 7 were Muslims shopkeepers and porters, and 3 were security officials. The pilgrims were on their way to Amarnath cave shrine on annual pilgrimage. Many of those killed were local Bakarwal, Gurjar, Muslim men and porters hiring their horses and services to ferry the pilgrims to the site. Subsequently, then the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pahalgam and blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba for the killings.
 * At least 27 civilian migrant labourers from the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, were killed in similar simultaneous terror attacks in Mirbazar-Qazigund and Sandoo-Acchabal in Anantnag district.
 * At least 11 unarmed civilian people were killed in a pre-dawn terrorist attack in a remote village in Doda district.
 * At least 7 unarmed civilian were killed when around the same time as Doda attack, another group of terrorists simultaneously attacked another remote village in Kupwara to seven Muslim members of a family of a surrendered former militant.
 * At least 8 unarmed civilian were killed and 2 more were injured in an ambush by terrorists on a group of Village Defence Committee patrol party members of Kayar village of Doda district.

Aftermath
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee blamed Pakistan for being determined to sabotage democracy in (then) Jammu and Kashmir.