NEW DELHI — India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar vowed on Wednesday that those responsible for the deadly attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir last week “must be brought to justice,” as tensions between India and Pakistan surged again in the disputed region.
The assault on April 22 at a tourist site in Pahalgam left 26 people dead and has sparked a series of diplomatic and military exchanges between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. India has accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack, a charge Islamabad has firmly denied.
“This attack and its perpetrators, backers, and planners must face justice,” Jaishankar said in a statement following a call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
According to a U.S. readout, Rubio urged Sharif to “condemn the terror attack” and emphasized the importance of accountability.
Since the attack, nightly cross-border gunfire has flared up along the Line of Control (LoC), the heavily militarized frontier dividing the Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir. The Indian army reported that Pakistani troops initiated “unprovoked” fire in several sectors, including Kupwara, Uri, and Akhnoor, which India responded to “proportionately.” No casualties have been confirmed so far.
Indian police have released wanted posters for three suspects in the April 22 attack—two of them Pakistani nationals and one Indian—who are alleged members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi granted the country’s military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the incident during a closed-door meeting on April 29, a senior official told AFP.
Pakistan has denied any role in the attack, calling India’s accusations baseless. In a statement, Islamabad warned that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response,” adding to fears of further escalation in one of the world’s most volatile regions.