US Vice President JD Vance was warmly received by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Agra during his official India visit. The city celebrated the visit with cultural displays, schoolchildren waving flags, and heavy security arrangements along the route to the Taj Mahal.
"Our ticket was for tomorrow, but we are leaving today. We are scared, I am with family, I just want us to return home soon," the Jharkhand tourist said.
As the nation comes to terms with the devastating loss during the terror attack at Pahalgam on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday arrived at the Baisaran meadow, the site of the attack that claimed the lives of innocent tourists, sending shockwaves across the nation.
US Vice President JD Vance, along with Second Lady Usha Vance and their children, arrived in Agra and was welcomed by UP CM Yogi Adityanath. The visit marks the final stop of a four-day tour highlighting US-India cooperation in trade, defense, and regional security.
According to sources, top officers have rushed to the affected areas, with local security forces in alert and additional troops are being inducted in the area to carry out the search and destroy operations to nab the terrorists responsible for the attack.
Doda SSP Sandeep Mehta on Wednesday informed that, since the recent terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, the security in the region is tight.
"The attack on innocent tourists in Pahalgam by the terrorists is a grave and inhuman incident, which should be condemned by all the sections of the society. Terror activities in J&K have already come to zero. This incident definitely has a foreign hand behind it," Rao told ANI.
The DGP has ordered close monitoring of rail, road, and air traffic in view of any suspicious foreign activity. Security has been tightened in areas bordering Nepal, as well as at bus and railway stations.
PoJK political activist Amjad Ayub Mirza, speaking from Glasgow, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, blaming Pakistan Army and ISI for orchestrating the violence. He called for decisive action beyond internal security, urging strikes on terror launchpads in PoJK.
According to the Raipur Collector, first the bodies will be transported to the national capital, with the efforts on to ensure that the families of the victims are able to come back together, looking at the security situation in the region.
"The thing is that there is a lot of injustice in the world, this is the rude face, where the people who do not want to fight, just came for seeing the place, it is a shameless act to attack them, it is a crime. However much this (terror attack) is resisted against is less," he told ANI.