Pakistan warns it has 'credible intelligence' India is planning military attack within next 36 hours as nuclear-armed rivals inch towards war after Kashmir atrocity
Pakistan claims it has 'credible intelligence' that India is preparing to launch a military operation within two days, raising fears of a war between the nuclear-armed neighbours amid escalating tensions in Kashmir.
The statement by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met yesterday with army and security chiefs, giving the military 'complete operational freedom' to respond to the attack, a senior government source said.
Fresh fighting erupted last week in Kashmir - a territory that has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the British partition of India in 1947 - after gunmen killed 26 people.
The shooting, which Indian authorities say was perpetrated by three terrorists, including two Pakistani nationals, targeted Hindu tourists relaxing in the meadows near the town of Pahalgam in Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement early on Wednesday, Islamabad again denied any involvement in the attack, adding that it condemned terrorism in all forms and would respond 'assuredly and decisively' to any Indian military manoeuvres launched 'on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident'.
'Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response,' said Tarar. 'India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region!'
The warning comes after Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters in an interview earlier this week: 'We have reinforced our forces because (an incursion) is something which is imminent now.'
He added that India's rhetoric was ramping up and that Pakistan's military had briefed the government on the possibility of an Indian attack, though he gave no details as to why he thought an incursion by India's forces was in the offing.
People burn an Indian flag and an effigy depicting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally against India's suspension of the Indus Water Treaty over the Pahalgam attacks
Indian army patrols on way to Hapatnar in Anantnag district south of Kashmir on April 29, 2025
Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard along a street in Srinagar on April 30, 2025
A policeman searches the car of a commuter along a street in Srinagar on April 30, 2025
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met yesterday with army and security chiefs
The April 22 assault prompted a flurry of military and diplomatic action as both sides moved to militarise along the 'Line of Control' (LoC) that separates Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
India launched naval drills, test-fired several long-range missile systems and suspended a key treaty that ensures India supplies Pakistan with water from the Indus River, a provision that is crucial for Pakistan's water supply and agricultural economy.
The unprecedented abeyance of the treaty on India's part is seen by some analysts as a key factor that could hasten a major conflict.
Dr Manali Kumar – an Indian foreign policy expert and lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, said: 'India's response, moving beyond conventional diplomatic and past kinetic military actions to include the unprecedented suspension of participation in the foundational Indus Waters Treaty... carries immense risks.
'It is perceived by Pakistan as an existential threat – an act of war if water flows are curtailed - drastically increasing the likelihood of military confrontation between two nuclear-armed states.
'This also sets a dangerous precedent for the weaponisation of shared resources, raising alarms among India's other neighbours who will be watching how this develops very carefully.'
Pakistan in turn deployed its air force to close its airspace to Indian airlines and has mobilised its army with footage appearing to show artillery batteries and armoured vehicles on their way to the LoC in anticipation of a major conflict.
India's army today said it had repeatedly traded gunfire with Pakistani troops for a sixth night in a row across the LoC - a heavily fortified zone of high-altitude Himalayan outposts - but with no reported casualties.
Pakistan's military did not confirm the shooting, but state radio in Islamabad reported on Tuesday it had shot down an Indian drone, calling it a violation of its airspace.
In the meantime, several politicians have ramped up threatening rhetoric.
Pakistan's railway minister, Hanif Abbasi, dramatically declared at the weekend that his nation's nuclear arsenal of more than 130 missiles were 'not kept as models' and were reserved 'only for India'.
'These ballistic missiles, all of them are targeted at you,' he concluded in a chilling warning.
Indian tourists are pictured in Pahalgam south of Srinagar on April 29, 2025
India's navy conducted long-range missile drills in recent days
People burn an Indian flag and a photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally against India's suspension of the Indus Water Treaty over the Pahalgam attacks near the Afghan border, in Chaman, Pakistan, 28 April 2025
Activists from Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal burn an effigy of terrorism and burn the Pakistan national flag during a protest against the killing of tourists by militants near Pahalgam, in Ahmedabad, India, April 28, 2025
The brutal attack that stoked tensions in Kashmir unfolded on a stunning day in the rolling hills a short walk from the town of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
The majority of the dead were Hindu tourists from India, with reports from witnesses and survivors claiming the gunmen, who remain at large, were ordering civilians to recite Islamic prayers and shooting those who were unable to do so.
A Pakistani militant group known as The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility in the wake of the attack, only to rescind the statement days later and blame the initial claim on a communications breach.
India accused Pakistan of supporting 'cross-border terrorism' as authorities concluded the gunmen were Islamic militants and identified two of the three suspected shooters as Pakistani.
Indian foreign policy and defence experts also claimed that the TRF is closely linked with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
But authorities in Islamabad called attempts to link Pakistan to the attack 'frivolous'.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif claimed an Indian incursion into Pakistani territory was 'imminent'
The body of Adil Hussain Shah, who was killed in the April 22 shooting, is carried for burial
An all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations could prove devastating for the 15-million-strong population of the disputed territory.
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 chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile held calls on Tuesday with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in which he 'offered his Good Offices to support de-escalation', his spokesman said.
Sharif's office later said he had urged 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'.
India's defence forces have conducted several military exercises across the country since the attack, though many of them were reported to be military preparedness drills.
Security forces have detained around 500 people for questioning after searching nearly 1,000 houses and forests around the site of the attacks in their hunt for the militants and further evidence, a local police official said this morning.
Several houses belonging to Muslim families living in Indian Kashmir were demolished in the course of the operation, prompting regional political leaders to ensure the innocent are not harmed in the government's actions against terrorism.
India's navy released footage of long-range missile drills
India launched naval drills, test-fired several long-range missile systems and suspended a key treaty that ensures India supplies Pakistan with water from the Indus River
Pakistan appears to have deployed artillery to India's border as tensions continue to grow with its nuclear-armed rival India following a tourist massacre in Kashmir
Members of the Anti-Terror Action Forum chant slogans during a protest near the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, India
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to 'identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers' in a stern statement last week
'It's time to... avoid any misplaced action that alienates people. Punish the guilty, show them no mercy but don't let innocent people become collateral damage,' Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said on X on Saturday.
Another former chief minister made an appeal to the Indian government 'to take care that innocent people are not made to feel the brunt as alienation aids terrorists' goals of division and fear.'
But the Indian government is pressing ahead with a raft of measures in response to the shooting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a stern warning that New Delhi would 'identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers' and vowed to hunt the shooters 'to the ends of the Earth'.
Last week, India's Ministry of External Affairs declared it was suspending visa services for Pakistanis.
'In continuation of the decisions made by the Cabinet Committee on Security in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, the Government of India has decided to suspend visa services to Pakistani nationals with immediate effect.
'All existing valid visas issued by India to Pakistani nationals stand revoked with effect from 27 April 2025.
'Medical visas issued to Pakistani nationals will be valid only till 29 April 2025.
'All Pakistani nationals currently in India must leave India before the expiry of visas, as now amended.
'Indian nationals are strongly advised to avoid travelling to Pakistan. Those Indian nationals currently in Pakistan are also advised to return to India at the earliest.'
The UN urged both New Delhi and Islamabad to show 'maximum restraint' after troops exchanged fire along the border overnight
India suspended a decades-old water sharing treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960 as part of its response, threatening to cut water off to Pakistani farms
India also suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 that ensures water for 80% of Pakistani farms, saying it would last until 'Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.'
The treaty split the Indus River and its tributaries between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Government officials and experts on both sides say India cannot stop water flows immediately, because the treaty has allowed it to only build hydropower plants without significant storage or dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan.
But things could start changing in a few months.
'We will ensure no drop of the Indus River's water reaches Pakistan,' India's water resources minister, Chandrakant Raghunath Paatil, said on X.
Pakistan responded to the moves by suspending all visas issued to Indian nationals under an exemption scheme with immediate effect and closing its airspace to Indian flights.
A statement from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office said: 'Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force.'
Khalid Hussain Baath, chairman of a national farmers' union in Pakistan, said India's move came at a time when there is both a water shortage and low predicted rainfall.
'This is a true war,' he added.
The two nations have clashed over Kashmir since 1947, when Britain, which controlled India, split the nation into two, creating an independent India and Pakistan.
The partition of the two nations established Pakistan as a Muslim-majority nation, while India was created as a Hindu-majority nation.
Britain's decision, passed by parliament in July 1947, also gave Kashmir, as well as Jammu, the opportunity to decide which nation to join.
Kashmir's monarch, the maharaja, initially decided that his nation should go it alone, claiming that it had been under the yoke of empires for centuries and had been ignored and under-developed.
But ultimately, the then-ruler of Kashmir agreed his nation should join India, in exchange for the former colony providing material support against Pakistan, which later triggered the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48.
Years of conflict led to rebels in Kashmir waging an insurgency that began in 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, China - which also has territorial claims in Kashmir - has urged both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint following last week's shooting.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters in a briefing Monday morning that Beijing welcomes 'all measures that will help cool down the situation'.
