
The image above shows India-Pakistan borderlands at night
The United States and major Middle Eastern countries are making diplomatic efforts to tamp down Pakistani-Indian tensions while a newspaper report Sunday said New Delhi ‘appears to be building a case for military action’ against Pakistan over killing of tourists in the disputed Kashmir region.
Citing four diplomatic officials in a dispatch from New Delhi, The New York Times reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to more than a dozen world leaders since April 22.
That effort, according to the report, is “largely not about rallying help to de-escalate India’s dangerous face-off with Pakistan” but appears to be building a case for military action against Pakistan.
In the briefings to diplomats at the foreign ministry, New Delhi has described Pakistan’s past patterns of support for terrorist groups targeting India but has not provided an evidence linking last week’s gun attack which killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam tourist resort.
In a speech on Thursday Modi, without naming Pakistan, had promised severe punishment and the razing of terror safe havens.
In the part of Kashmir under Indian control, forces have also begun a sweeping clampdown, arresting hundreds, as they continue their hunt for the perpetrators.
New Delhi has suspended a major agreement on sharing waters flowing out of the Himalayan Kashmir region. Pakistan has said if India acted against the Indus Water Treaty and blocked its share of water, it would be treated as an act of war.
Meanwhile, a Reuters report said the United States in contact with both Islamabad and New Delhi and is emphasizing a responsible solution to the crisis.
Following the attack and a series of tit-for-tat actions by the Indian and Pakistani governments anti-Muslim sentiment in India is also intensifying. Kashmiri students studying in other Indian cities in particular facing widespread harassment and many of them feeling compelled to return home, the Times reported.
Six days after the assault, New Delhi is yet to officially identify any group who perpetrated the attack.
Islamabad has has denied any involvement, and both sides have ratcheted up the rhetoric.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have also offered to mediate between two countries that have fought several conflicts.
Pakistani and Indian militaries have also trade fire across the Line of Control in Kashmir, a UN-recognized disputed territory.