New Delhi, April 23 -- The Pahalgam terror strike, a rare targeted attack on tourists, comes days ahead of a change of guard at the Udhampur-based Northern Command, the nerve centre of counterterrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Northern Army commander Lieutenant General MV Suchindra Kumar will retire on April 30. Kumar was in Delhi on Tuesday for a retiring officers' seminar but flew back to Srinagar for a first-hand assessment of the situation unfolding in Kashmir, people aware of the matter said. Lieutenant General Pratik Sharma, who is the deputy chief of army staff (strategy) at the Army headquarters here, is expected to succeed Kumar at the Northern Command, HT learns.

The attack comes at a time when tourists were making...