Comment on: Alam Akhtar, Ahmad Shabir, Sultan Bhat, M., Ahmad Bashir, 2015. Tectonic evolution of Kashmir basin in northwest Himalayas. Geomorphology doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.03.025

•A major dextral strike-slip fault of Alam et al. (in press) is structurally impossible.•Strike-slip fault geometry contradictory to typical concepts of such faulting•The Horsetail structures are impossible for a major planar strike-slip fault geometry proposed by Alam et al. (in press).•The recent geodetic data of Kashmir basin strongly refutes the pure strike-slip model.

Alam et al. (2015) have challenged the classic piggyback tectonic model for the development of Kashmir basin, NW Himalaya. However, all the evidence shown is completely contrary to the geologic, tectonic, structural, seismologic, geodetic, and geomorphic data of previous works. A perfectly planar major (~ 165 km) dextral strike-slip fault has been mapped; however, with such planar geometry, any strike-slip fault cannot produce a pull-apart basin because such basins are characteristic features of step-overs and linkage fault geometries. And the Horsetail structures are impossible for a major planar strike-slip fault geometry that is proposed by the authors. The recent geodetic data of the Kashmir basin strongly refutes the pure strike-slip model. Therefore, the structures, geomorphology, geology, and kinematics associated with typical dextral strike-slip fault geometry completely contradict to what has been proposed by Alam et al. (2015).