Kashmir Terrorism and Politics of Blame

Abstract

Kashmir has been a long-standing conflicted region between Pakistan and India. It has been shaped by opposing narratives which drown out the pain of ordinary Kashmiri’s. The objectives of this study reflect Indian strategic hypocrisy of sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir while ignoring its own involvement as well as blaming Pakistan without any concrete evidence.  Pakistan rejected Indian claims, because India uses Kashmir as a threshold of war against Pakistan also to legitimize its presence in Indian illegally occupied Kashmir (IIOK). Pakistan advocated for a free and fair referendum as mandated by the United Nation Resolution. The blame politics often diverts attention from local issues and perpetuates the conflicts in the region. For instance, the URI attack in 2016, the Pulwama attack in 2019, and most recently the Pahalgam attack in 2025 each episode follows the similar pattern of attack blaming Pakistan, India domestic media become frenzy and follow dissenting narratives. The significance of this study lies in the analysis of blame politics. The study recommends that blame politics hides the grievances of the local Kashmiri’s and the rights given by the UN charter. The study contributes insightful knowledge for policymakers, scholarly realms, and academia.