Pakistan has alleged that India is planning a military strike on its territory, signaling a further escalation in tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
“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,” Islamabad’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X on Tuesday evening.
Read more: Pakistan’s solar revolution leaves its middle class behind
“Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response. India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region,” Tarar added.
His statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his country’s armed forces “full operational freedom” to determine the mode, targets, and timing of a response to the recent terrorist attack in India’s Jammu and Kashmir union territory, which left 26 people dead, mostly tourists.
New Delhi has linked the terrorist attack to Pakistan, reiterating long-standing accusations that its neighbor supports cross-border terrorism and insurgencies.
Islamabad has denied the allegations and, in turn, accused India of backing “terrorist networks” operating on Pakistani soil. The two countries have a long-standing dispute over the Kashmir region, which is de facto divided by the Line of Control established after the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
Read more: Exclusive: Pakistan defence minister says military incursion by India is imminent
On April 22, terrorists opened fire on a group of people in Pahalgam, in the northern part of Jammu and Kashmir. The Resistance Front, believed to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to punish “the terrorists and their backers.” Indian media reported on Tuesday that four anti-terror operations were underway in Jammu and Kashmir.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif suggested that the Pahalgam attack was a false flag operation staged by India.
In response, New Delhi’s Deputy Envoy to the United Nations, Yojna Patel, condemned Islamabad for making what she called “baseless allegations against India.”