Pakistan has called for a “neutral” investigation into the Indian-controlled killing of tourists in Kashmir that New Delhi denounced Islamabad and said it is willing to work together to support peace.
India has identified two of the three suspected attackers as Pakistanis, but Islamabad denied its role in Tuesday’s attack, killing 25 Indians and one Nepali national.
“Pakistan is ready to work with neutral investigators to ensure that the truth is revealed and justice is provided,” Pakistan’s Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday.
“Pakistan continues to commit to peace, stability and international norms, but will not compromise on its sovereignty,” he told a news conference.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif said, “The recent tragedy in Pahargam is another example of this constant game of responsibility and it must be stopped.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to chase the attackers “the edge of the earth” and said those who plan and carry it will be “punished beyond their imagination.”
Meanwhile, calls from Indian politicians and others continue to grow in order to retaliate against Pakistan.
After the attack, India and Pakistan unleashed many measures from each other, Pakistan closed airspace to Indian Airlines, and India suspended the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which regulated the sharing of water from the Indus River and its tributaries.
Both who fully claim Kashmir while Kashmir was partially governed, traded fires across the de facto border for two consecutive days after a relatively calm period of four years.
Indian forces said they have responded to the “unprovoked” small arms fires from multiple Pakistani Army posts that began around midnight, which began on Friday along the 740km (460 miles) de facto border separating India and Pakistan’s region in Kashmir. The victims have not reported it.
The Pakistani military has not yet commented on the fire exchange.
Former Pakistani diplomat Maliha Rodi told Al Jazeera that Pakistan has a “dark atmosphere” and that he has a lot of anxiety about what will happen next.
“Nuclear neighbors are on the brink of a more dangerous conflict, so there is fear, especially due to the speeches made by Prime Minister Modi and the Indian media,” Rody said.
The former ambassador emphasized that because of this rhetoric there is fear that India may take “moving behavior” against Pakistan.
“That would mean a very strong and robust response from Pakistan,” she said.
“So fear and anxiety really focus on the fact that we can stand at the threshold of a full-scale crisis,” Roddy concluded.
Indians who live in the border village of RS Pula, Jammu and Kashmir, have also begun cleaning community bankers as diplomatic tensions with Pakistan’s escalation.
“We are residents of the border area. No matter what happens in India, our area will be affected first,” resident Barbir Kaur told Reuters.
“We are prepared to be ready if something happens. The Indian government doesn’t need to think about whether people living at the border are safe or not. We don’t want to be a burden on them.”
In an editorial released on Saturday, the Pakistan Dawn news outlet said, “It’s time for Pakistan or India to give diplomacy a chance, as neither Pakistan nor India can afford war.”
The editor added, “These are times of danger in the subcontinent, and both Pakistan and India show restraint and need to be dealt with post-Pahargam development intuitively.”
Meanwhile, Indian security forces continue to hunt for suspects, destroying at least five suspicious insurgent Indian-controlled Kashmir homes, including those who appear to have taken part in the latest attack.
Broken glass pieces were scattered on the grounds of such a house in Murulam village in Pulwama district on Saturday. Locals said they had never seen Asan Ahmed Sheikh, a suspected fighter plane whose home had been destroyed in the last three years.
“No one knows where he is,” neighbor Samea Ahmed told Reuters.
“Asan’s family has lost their homes. They will suffer from this, not him.”
However, citing “national security interests,” Indian authorities have declared a ban on live coverage of large-scale military and security activities.
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