Dhaka, April 24 -- Indian tourist brochures dub the Himalayan region of Kashmir "Little Switzerland," and its mountain meadows are usually packed with visitors escaping the sweltering summer heat in the lowland plains of India.
On Wednesday, a day after gunmen killed 26 men in an attack on the popular tourist site of Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reported an "exodus of our guests."
For New Delhi, the 3.5 million tourists who it says visited Kashmir in 2024 - mostly domestic visitors - illustrated what officials called "normalcy and peace" returning to the troubled region after a massive crackdown.
Rebels in the Muslim-majority region have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pak...