2002 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre

The 48-days July–August annual Hindu pilgrimage, undertaken by up to 600,000 or more pilgrims to high glacial Amarnath cave shrine of iced stalagmite Shiv linga e at in Himalayas, is called Amarnath Yatra. It begins with a mountainous trek from the Nunwan and Chandanwari base camp at Pahalgam and reaches cave-shine after night halts at Sheshnag Lake and Panchtarni camps. The yatra is both a way of earning revenue by the state government by imposing tax on pilgrims, and making living by the local Shia Muslim Bakarwal-Gujjars by taking a portion of revenue and by offering services to the Hindu pilgrims, and this source of income has been threatened by the Islamist Kashmiri Sunni militant groups who have banned and attacked the yatra numerous times, and massacred at least 43 people in the Amarnath pilgrimage terrorist-attack massacre (2000) and Amarnath pilgrimage terrorist-attack massacre (2001) causing the deaths of 33 Hindu pilgrims and 10 Muslim civilians. ==Massacre==

On 2 August 2000, pro-Pakistan Islamist terrorists from Hizbul Mujahideen (designated a terrorist organisation by India, European Union and United States,) massacred at least 31 people and injured at least 60 people in a two hour long indiscriminate shoot out at Nunwan base camp in Anantnag district, causing the death of 21 unarmed Hindu pilgrims and 7 unarmed Muslim shopkeepers, and 3 security force officers. On 20 July 2001, a terrorist threw a grenade on a pilgrim night camp at Sheshnag near the Amarnath shrine in which at least 13 persons, including 3 women, were killed in two explosions and firing by militants, 2 were security officials and 3 were Muslim civilians. == Aftermath ==

Earlier attacks on Amarnath yatra and Bin Laden's September 11 attacks on USA, were some of the incidents that forced the change in global response to the Islamic terror attacks from aloof and sporadic to united and coordinated. Pakistan-backed Islamic terrorist organizations, founded by Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen were designated terrorist organisations by India, European Union and United States. == See also ==