Pahalgam attack: Indian students at Harvard urge Rubio to revoke visas of Pakistani officials scheduled to visit campus

The Pakistani delegate is reportedly scheduled to visit the Pakistan Conference 2025 at Harvard University.

“We are students at Harvard Kennedy School, deeply disturbed by the recent targeted terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India, on April 22, 2025. Survivors confirm that attackers demanded religious identification and recitation of Islamic prayers–those who failed or identified as Hindu were killed. This was not an indiscriminate act of violence–it was a faith-based massacre,” Indian students Surabhi Tomar and Abhishek Chaudhari wrote the letter on behalf of concerned students at Harvard University to Rubio, as quoted by ANI news agency.

“Even more troubling is the response from Pakistani state officials. While the Pakistani Foreign Ministry issued perfunctory condolences, other leaders have simultaneously issued veiled threats toward India and reaffirmed their support for Kashmiri insurgents, the ideological and logistical base for LeT,” the letter added.

“Senator Rubio, we respectfully urge you to recommend that the US State Department revoke the visas of all Pakistani officials travelling to the United States for this conference,” the letter mentioned.

Pahalgam attack

Twenty-six people, including 23 Hindu male tourists, were killed by terrorists in Baisaran meadows, a popular destination in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, on April 22.

The terrorists- belonging to The Resistance Front (TRF), which is an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)- asked the victims to chant Islamic verses (kalma) and made them pull down their pants to be sure of their their non-Muslim religious identities (read circumcision)  before gunning them down before their families, including wives, children and daughters.

The massacre triggered nationwide outrage and escalated India-Pakistan tensions as New Delhi vowed to avenge the killings.

In an immediate response, India suspended the landmark Indus River water-sharing treaty and closed the Attari-Wagah road border, which acts as a lifeline of Indo-Pak trade and people-to-people ties, besides expelling diplomats, downsizing high commissions, and issuing a 48-hour deadline to Pakistani visa holders present in India to leave.