India's armed forces intensified Wednesday the search for suspected gunmen behind a deadly assault on civilians in the India-administered Kashmir.
The army and police in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir are conducting a joint search operation.
The newspaper Greater Kashmir reported that security measures throughout the Kashmir Valley have been heightened with additional checkpoints established in the region.
Twenty-six people were killed and at least 17 others were injured – most of them Indian holidaymakers – in the attack on a mountain meadow in a holiday area near Pahalgam on Tuesday.
The government classified it as a terrorist attack, viewing it as a targeted assault on tourists.
Local media reports indicate that the Resistance Front (TRF), a splinter group of the banned organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.
The LeT is held responsible for a series of attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.
The police in Kashmir have released three sketches of the suspected attackers to aid the manhunt.
A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reportedly arrived in Pahalgam to begin investigations. The NIA operates in India as the central counterterrorism agency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short an official visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to India, announced that the perpetrators would be held accountable.
Insugency groups oppose India's control over the predominantly Muslim region.
