SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Pakistani troopers fired at Indian posts alongside the extremely militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir for a second consecutive evening, the Indian army mentioned Saturday, as tensions flared between the nuclear-armed rivals following a lethal assault on vacationers final week.
India described the bloodbath, through which gunmen killed 26 folks, most of them Indian vacationers, as a “terror assault” and accused Pakistan of backing it.
Pakistan denies the cost. The assault, close to the resort city of Pahalgam in India-controlled Kashmir, was claimed by a beforehand unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.
It was the restive area’s worst assault focusing on civilians in years. Within the days since, tensions have risen dangerously between India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. The area is break up between them and claimed by each in its entirety.
The Indian military mentioned Saturday that troopers from a number of Pakistani military posts in a single day opened fireplace at Indian troops “all throughout the Line of Management” in Kashmir. “Indian troops responded appropriately with small arms,” the assertion mentioned. There have been no casualties reported, the assertion added.
There was no remark from Pakistan, and the incidents couldn’t be independently verified. Up to now, either side has accused the opposite of beginning border skirmishes within the Himalayan area.
Markets and bazaars had been open in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Saturday, and there was no signal of evacuations from villages positioned close to the Line of Management.
Tit-for-tat measures and a spike in tensions
After the vacationer assault, India suspended a vital water-sharing treaty and closed the one practical land border crossing. It revoked visas issued to Pakistanis with impact from Sunday.
Pakistan retaliated by canceling visas issued to Indians, closing its airspace to Indian-owned or Indian-operated airways, and suspending commerce with India. Nationals from either side started heading to their residence international locations by the Wagah border close to Pakistan’s japanese metropolis of Lahore on Friday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday vowed the federal government would reply “with full drive and would possibly” to Indian makes an attempt to cease or divert the stream of water.
He additionally mentioned Pakistan was open to taking part in any “impartial, clear and credible investigation” into the vacationer assault.
New Delhi describes all militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism, a cost Pakistan rejects. Many Muslim Kashmiris contemplate the militants to be a part of a home-grown freedom battle. Rebels have been combating Indian rule since 1989 for uniting the territory, both beneath Pakistani rule or as an impartial nation.
Iran provides to mediate, whereas Trump declines to interact
With tensions excessive between the 2 international locations, Iran supplied mediation, whereas U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned he anticipated them to work out their variations.
“Tehran stands prepared to make use of its good places of work in Islamabad and New Delhi to forge larger understanding at this tough time,” Iranian International Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi mentioned on Friday.
“India and Pakistan are brotherly neighbors of Iran, having fun with relations rooted in centuries-old cultural and civilizational ties. Like different neighbors, we contemplate them our foremost precedence,” Araghchi wrote in a social media publish.
Trump on Friday mentioned “there’s nice rigidity between Pakistan and India, however there all the time has been.”
Trump, who spoke on board Air Pressure One, didn’t reply when requested by reporters whether or not he would contact leaders of the 2 international locations, however mentioned “they’ll get it found out come what may.”
The U.S. has lengthy known as for calm between India and Pakistan, and mediated between the 2 rivals throughout a serious border skirmish in 1999.
U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard expressed solidarity with India.
“We’re with you and help you as you search out these accountable for this heinous assault,” Gabbard mentioned on the X platform.
India intensifies its crackdown in Kashmir
Shortly after Tuesday’s assault, Indian forces intensified a crackdown within the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rise up. They detained and questioned no less than 1,500 folks, three police officers mentioned.
Troops detonated explosives within the household properties of no less than three suspected militants in southern Kashmir Friday evening, residents mentioned. In a single such incident, dozens of different homes additionally suffered injury, with their windowpanes shattering and partitions cracking as a result of influence of the blast.
A Kashmiri villager stands amid the particles of the blown-up household residence of Ahsan Ul Haq Shiekh, a militant who officers say is concerned within the lethal assault on vacationers in Pahalgam, at Murran village in Pulwama, south of Srinagar, Indian managed Kashmir, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Picture/Dar Yasin)
The police officers insisted on anonymity, in step with their departmental coverage, whereas the villagers feared reprisals from authorities.
Early Friday, troops additionally destroyed the household properties of two suspected militants they accused of being concerned in Tuesday’s assault.
Indian troops demolish properties as a typical anti-militancy tactic in Kashmir.
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Roy reported from New Delhi and Ahmed from Islamabad. Related Press author Ishfaq Hussain contributed to this story from Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.
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