Pakistan says India planning strike as tensions soar over Kashmir attack

NEW DELHI – Pakistan’s Information Minister said early on April 30 that Islamabad had “credible intelligence” that India was planning an imminent military strike, and he vowed a “decisive response”, as worries of spiralling conflict grew over a deadly attack in Kashmir.

The statement by Mr Attaullah Tarar came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a closed-door meeting the previous day with army and security chiefs, at which he gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack, a senior government source told AFP.

“Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext,” Mr Tarar said in a statement.

Pahalgam is a tourist hub in Indian-administered Kashmir where

26 men were killed on April 22

in the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested region in years.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting the attack, a claim Islamabad has rejected.

“Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response,” said Mr Tarar. “India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region!”

The development comes as nations around the world, from neighbouring China to the US, express deep concerns over the nuclear-armed neighbours’ mounting tensions and urge restraint.

India’s army on April 30 said it had

repeatedly traded gunfire with Pakistani troops

for a sixth night in a row across the Line of Control, the de facto Kashmir border, a heavily fortified zone of high-altitude Himalayan outposts.

The army reported “small arms firing” in multiple sites, but with no reported casualties.

Pakistan’s military did not confirm the shooting, but state radio in Islamabad reported on April 29 it had shot down an Indian drone, calling it a violation of its airspace.

It did not say when the incident happened, and there was no comment from New Delhi.

‘Ends of the earth’

Tensions have been rapidly mounting in the week since the Pahalgam attack, with tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs, expulsion of citizens and land border crossings shut.

Last week, Mr Modi vowed to pursue those who carried out the attack, and those who had supported it.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said on April 24. “We will pursue them to the ends of the earth”.

The bellicose statements have prompted worries of a rapid spiral into military action, with several nations, including neighbouring China, calling for restraint and dialogue.

The US State Department said top diplomat Marco Rubio would call his Pakistani and Indian counterparts soon to urge them “to not escalate the situation”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke over the phone on April 29 with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in which he “offered his good offices to support de-escalation”, his spokesman said.

Mr Sharif’s office later said he had urged Mr Guterres to “counsel India” to exercise restraint, while pledging to defend Pakistan’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity with full force in case of any misadventure by India”.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.

Rebels in the Indian-run area have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack – two Pakistanis and an Indian – who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

They have announced a bounty of two million rupees (S$30,900) for information leading to each man’s arrest and carried out sweeping detentions seeking anyone suspected of links to the alleged killers.

The worst attack in recent years in Indian-run Kashmir was in Pulwama in 2019, when an insurgent rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.

Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.

Iran has already offered to mediate and Saudi Arabia has said Riyadh was trying to “prevent an escalation”.

US President Donald Trump downplayed tensions, saying on April 25 the dispute will get “figured out, one way or another”. AFP