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The tragedy found its way again on an ordinary summer day in Pahalgam, a stunning natural paradise with majestic crystal-clear lakes and lush green meadows; a place where tourists feel “hami aasto” (translated as If there is a paradise on earth, it is here; a famous phrase attributed to scenic beauty of Kashmir) when a sandal clade and cheap rifle equipped terrorists opened fire on civilian tourists, both Indian and foreign. The paradise was bloodied again and left to follow the same tired sequence of condemnations, statements, and televised outrage, and eventually silence until the next bullet finds another unsuspecting life.
The tragedy has the ability to shatter civilian confidence and erode the vital economic artery of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The perpetrators of this heinous crime are not equipped with satellite-guided missiles. They only need to cross a ridge, pick their target, and film the aftermath. They need to be right once, and we as a state, need to be right every time. Israel has drones that hunt in silence, the US has precision strike doctrines and a robust homeland intelligence network, yet neither of them was able to stop the perpetrators of the October 7 Attack or the 9/11 Attack. No state has the ability to monitor a radicalized twenty-year-old frustrated individual picking up an AK-47 in a village 200 kilometres away from the spot. The nature of terror has evolved. The response has not.
A good defense strategy needs to develop a great economic policy. Jammu and Kashmir’s tourism economy is its lifeline. The sector contributes 7-8 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product, with peak years reaching nearly 10 percent. In 2023, the region recorded 2 crore tourists, potentially generating ₹11,000 crore worth of direct revenue for the formal and informal sectors. Tourism directly and indirectly sustains over 20 lakh jobs, meaning nearly one in four households in Kashmir Valley depend on tourism for survival. Tourism’s ripple effects are profound and stabilising. Hotels, taxi unions, artisans, apple farmers, pony wala, and women-led handicraft cooperatives all have a stake in the prosperity that the tourism economy brings. Economic power is distributed across communities which can blunt the appeal of radicalism and strengthen social cohesion. Foreign tourist numbers, especially high-value travelers from Europe and Southeast Asia further increase India’s soft power in a region under intense global scrutiny. Hence, tourism is not just about the money, but also a narrative that can benefit multiple stakeholders across the national security community.
For the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the economic continuity is under fire. The state needs to take up a Tourism Security Infrastructure Mission to protect this critical sector. This can include the creation of hard infrastructure in tourist corridors. Hubs such as Pahalgam, Gulmarg, and Sonmarg must be secured like economic assets, not just as scenic backwaters. This means creation of smart surveillance towers and drone overwatch through recently ordered Trinetra Drones across valleys and ridge passes. A Permanent network of Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) within a 15-minute radius of every major tourist zone can be a great tactical resolve to neutralize such attacks. Further, Special Forces-trained Tourism Protection Battalions operating under a dedicated Tourism Security Division, either under CRPF or J&K Police, can be executed as a deterrent factor.
The role of state and local governments cannot be underestimated. Security is more sustainable when it has a local buy-in. The J&K Government can provide a bonus grant support to every attack-free constituency where locals resolve or report the radicalization issue. There can be revenue-sharing mechanisms within gram panchayats and local governments that are directly tied to collaboration with tourism and security agencies. The state should reinforce mandatory public-private protocols such as GPS tracking of tourist vehicles, panic buttons in hotel rooms, and radio-linked safety protocols for tour operators and accommodation providers. Further, retired CRPF personnel can provide the service of civil security liaisons through the creation of a Tourist Sentinel Scheme.
Such measures can prevent a 20-30 percent drop in tourism revenue that typically follows a terror attack, as witnessed in 2016. Tourism creates economic predictability, turning around the fertile ground for radical recruitment. A visibly thriving and secure tourism economy in Kashmir is the much-needed soft power story giving answers to sceptics both domestic and foreign. The author does not argue against the creation of a counterterrorism doctrine. J&K requires a parallel strategy of economic deterrence where terrorist networks are afraid of attacking tourism spots.
[Photo by Raunak314, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
Nisarg Jani is a Doctoral Candidate at Pandit Deendayal Energy University situated in Gujarat, India. The author is also a Senior Research Staff Member at Geostrata, an independent youth-led think tank and Network for Advanced Studies of Technology Geopolitics (NAST) Fellow 2024-2025 at Takshashila Institution. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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