Pakistan has warned that India may launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours as tensions between the two nations simmer following a deadly attack last week in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
In a statement posted on X, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad has “credible intelligence” that New Delhi is planning to take military action under the “pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement” in the April 22 attack by gunmen in the tourist resort of Pahalgam which killed 26 people.
“Pakistan reiterates that any such military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively. The international community must remain alive to the reality that the onus of escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India,” he said.
New Delhi said the attack had “cross-border” links. Islamabad, however, has distanced itself from the attack, expressing concern and offering to cooperate with an independent inquiry into the attack.
Earlier, Pakistan said that India has failed to provide a “shred of evidence” for its “baseless” accusations” about last week’s deadly attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir that killed 26 people.
“Seven days have passed since the Pahalgam incident but, so far, India has not provided a shred of evidence for its baseless allegations against Pakistan,” army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Sharif also accused the Indian army of “running a terrorism network” inside Pakistan. Islamabad has “irrefutable evidence” to prove its claim, he said.
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Also today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a Cabinet Security Committee meeting amid rising tensions with neighbouring Pakistan, state-run media reported.
This is the second such meeting since an April 22 attack by unidentified gunmen who killed 26 people at a tourist resort in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Following the top security huddle, Modi is expected to convene the Cabinet’s political and economic committees as well as a full Cabinet meeting later in the day, state-run Doordarshan TV News reported.
A day earlier, he chaired a high-level meeting attended by many officials, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and three military service chiefs.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he will soon speak to his Pakistani and Indian counterparts amid escalating tensions between the two nations.
“We are reaching out to both parties and telling, of course, them to not escalate the situation,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
Rubio is encouraging other foreign ministers to reach out to those countries, she said.
Last week, India suspended a decades-long water-sharing agreement, the Indus Waters Treaty, following the attack, a move condemned by Islamabad.
The two countries have also shut border crossings and further downgraded diplomatic ties.
