Kolkata, Apr 23 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the state cabinet had adopted a condolence resolution to mourn the deaths of 26 people in the Pahalgam terror attack.

She strongly condemned the attack and demanded the harshest possible punishment for those responsible.

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"Terrorism has no religion, no caste — you cannot forgive them," she said.

"I cannot believe that such a prolonged terror strike took place. From what we're hearing, the assailants selected their victims before killing them. There were so many Army personnel present. It's a border area. I will not speak much on this now. What we want is strong action against those behind this."

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"We have condemned the incident, and today in the Cabinet, we adopted a Condolence Resolution to express our grief," she said.

The Chief Minister assured that the families of the three victims from West Bengal would receive full assistance from the state government.

She noted that the bodies of Bitan Adhikari and Samir Guha would arrive in Kolkata later in the evening.

She also confirmed that the body of IB officer Manish Ranjan, a resident of Purulia district, would be flown to Ranchi and then transported by road to his current residence in Jhalda.

Banerjee said she has spoken to Bitan's wife and brother and also to the elder brother of Samir.

"I have spoken to the wife of Bitan and his brother. I have spoken to the elder brother of the Samir," she said.

Banerjee said 26 tourists from Bengal were stuck in the Valley due to a landslide and all sorts of arrangements were made to quickly bring them back to the state.

Terrorists opened fire at a meadow near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 26 people, mostly tourists, in what is the deadliest attack in the valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.

Baisaran, about 6km from the resort town of Pahalgam, is an expansive meadow ringed by dense pine forests and mountains and a favourite with tourists and trekkers.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)