Tourists ski in Pahalgam, southwest of Srinagar, in February. (Reuters file picture)

Srinagar, June 15 (Reuters): One more voice has been added to militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba’s assurance to tourists visiting Kashmir that they were not targets in the battle against Delhi’s rule after a bloody weekend attack on a popular holiday spot.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the political leader of Kashmir’s hardline separatists, today condemned Saturday’s grenade attack on a hotel in Pahalgam which killed five people, including an eight-year-old girl.

“The killing of civilians and innocent people, that is not supported by Islam,” Geelani, a 74-year-old former legislator seen as having strong influence over guerrilla groups, said. “We don’t like innocent people to be targeted.”

Yesterday, Pakistan-based Lashkar said it was against harming tourists. “We are not against the tourism industry,” it said. “We want our brethren associated with the industry to better their economic level.”

But a relatively little-known militant group, Al Nasireen, which a senior Border Security Force officer said was a front for Lashkar and another major militant outfit, said India was pushing tourists to Kashmir to try to prove that resistance to its rule was over.

“The Indian government has sent tourists to Kashmir to show the world that the resistance movement has ended here,” a spokesman told local reporters. “We won’t allow it. Outside tourists should pack and leave.”

Pahalgam is one of Kashmir’s most popular tourist spots and one of the main staging points for the Amarnath pilgrimage that begins at the end of the month and which is expected to bring more than 150,000 devotees to the Himalayan region.

Officials say grenade attacks have risen in recent months although rebel violence has ebbed since India and Pakistan kicked off a peace process a year ago and because of the recent winter.

But Saturday’s attack was low-scale by the standards of the 14-year-old violence and security officials said they had no plan to boost security. “There are so many incidents. I don’t think this is a big deal. Grenade-throwing in the (Kashmir) Valley — it happens,” said K. Srinivasan, the BSF officer.

“This is a temporary setback for a couple of days, but why would we take this in a big way?”

More than 100,000 tourists, mainly Indians, came to Kashmir in the first five months of the year, compared with less than 20,000 last year.