An atmospheric fluorescence detection system has been in operation at Gulmarg (India), during 1972-1978, to search for short-duration (≤1 ms) optical pulses produced following the absorption of cosmic X ray and gamma ray photon bursts in the terrestrial atmosphere. A systematic examination of the records reveals no evidence of events with the characteristics of fast atmospheric pulsations (FAP), the millisecond time scale optical pulses detected during similar studies carried out elsewhere. The complete absence of FAP activity at Gulmarg raises serious doubts about the proposed magnetospheric origin of these events.