Srinagar/New Delhi

A day after 26 people were ruthlessly gunned down in Kashmir’s Pahalgam town, security agencies on Wednesday released sketches of three Pakistani terrorists as a grim Centre took stock of the situation and anguished families said adieu to the men they had loved and lost.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia, met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in the morning at the airport itself. In the evening, he chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security to formulate India's response. “People responsible for such acts will get a strong response in the near future,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Reflecting the government’s resolve in the face of the deadliest terror attack since the Pulwama strike and the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, he added, “We will not only trace those who perpetrated the attack but also trace those who conspired to commit this nefarious act on our soil.”

Singh also reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir with Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, the three service chiefs, defence secretary and the director general of military operations.

It is learnt that Singh directed the armed forces to enhance their combat readiness and increase intensity of anti-terror operations.

It was a day of hushed silences, angry discussions and cries of despair as an entire nation mourned those killed in the brazen attack targeting holidayers in the scenic expanse of the Baisaran meadow, six kilometres from Pahalgam.

Other ministers, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, also issued strong statements.

Shah, who visited Baisaran, met the injured in hospital and chaired security review meetings, also signalled the intent of the government.

"Bharat will not bow to terror. The culprits of this dastardly terror attack will not be spared," he said. Those behind the Pahalgam atrocity will face severe consequences, Shah added.

Giving a face to the terrorists behind the massacre, security agencies released the sketches of three of the five men suspected to be involved in the terror attack. They are all Pakistanis, officials said, identifying them as Asif Fauji, Suleman Shah and Abu Talha.

They had code names -- Moosa, Yunus and Asif -- and were involved in terror-related incidents in Poonch.

Prepared with the help of survivors, the pencil sketches were in black and white. From the line drawings, they appear to be young and have beards.

The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow outfit of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday afternoon.

The attack comes barely a week after Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir announced in Islamabad that it will continue to extend support to the so-called Kashmir cause. Significantly, LeT cadres earlier this month issued provocative anti-India slogans in Rawalakot on April 18, officials said.

As the top government brass met in Delhi and Srinagar to assess the security implications and strategise on what lies ahead, the families and friends of the 26 men, mostly tourists holidaying in Kashmir, dealt with their individual, very personal tragedies.

Like the wife of 26-year-old Navy officer Lt Vinay Narwal. The couple had got married just a few days ago. Visuals of the young woman breaking down as her husband’s coffin arrived at the Delhi airport shook the nation.

"They were planning a honeymoon in Switzerland, but decided to go to Kashmir instead taking into account the leave he had...,” the Narwals’ neighbour Seema told reporters in Karnal.

Crowds jostled with each other and slogans went up when his flower bedecked coffin reached Karnal.

And in Kanpur, another bride saw her husband being killed in cold blood. Shubham Dwivedi, a 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur, got married just two months ago in February.

He had gone with his wife and family for a weeklong vacation. The newly-weds couple decided to go horse riding around noon on Tuesday when they were confronted by terrorists who asked him to recite an Islamic verse. When he could not, they shot him in the head, his family said.

Hundreds of kilometres away in Kochi, the family of 65-year-old Ramachandran also contemplated a life without him. He had travelled to Kashmir with his wife, daughter and grandchildren who had come from Dubal.

But the holiday was never to be.

Ramachandran was shot dead in front of his daughter, family sources said.

The stories played out in a tragic echo across many homes.

And in ground zero, Kashmiris sent out a clear message - Not In My Name.

People poured into the streets across towns and villages to express their grief and condemn the massacre of innocent civilians.

Srinagar city and other parts of Kashmir shut down, the first time since Article 370 was abrogated and the state was downgraded into a union territory in August 2019.

"This should not happen -- not in the name of Kashmir and not in the name of Islam. Islamic teachings value human life to the point that taking an innocent life is akin to killing entire humanity," Haji Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Srinagar city, told PTI.

At a protest in Kulgam, G M Banday, a fruit grower, said the government should take steps to eradicate the menace of terrorism so such incidents do not happen again. “People of Kashmir have always been against terrorism. However, conspiracies are being hatched to malign the Kashmiri community and hit the local economy. Such acts affect the livelihood of the local youth," Banday said.

Tourism is a mainstay of the economy and the attack comes just as the season was picking up momentum.

The spate of cancelled bookings and the rush to leave Kashmir indicated the uncertainty of the months to come.

While Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti apologised to the people of the country and said Kashmiris were ashamed of the incident during a protest march in Srinagar, the ruling National Conference too marched to the Lal Chowk city centre to protest against the attack.

In Jammu, the residents of Ramban district observed a complete shutdown and staged peaceful protests to condemn the terror attack. It was a joint protest by the Hindus and Muslims.

“We are already battling nature's fury and now this senseless attack has deepened our wound. We condemn this act which is against the teachings of Islam,” Gul Mohammad Farooqi, imam of Jamia Masjid of Bowli Bazar, told PTI.

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Several prominent newspapers in Kashmir came out with stark black front pages with headlines in red or white. The newspapers included leading English and Urdu dailies such as Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Uzma, Aftab and Taimeel Irshad.

"Gruesome: Kashmir Gutted, Kashmiris Grieving", said the Greater Kashmir headline in white on a black layout, followed by the subhead "26 killed in deadly terror attack in Pahalgam" in red.