India, Pakistan trade diplomatic blows after deadly Kashmir attack”
India and Pakistan exchanged an escalating series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures on Thursday after New Delhi blamed its arch-rival for backing a deadly shooting attack in contested Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue and punish the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism.”
Indian police in the region have identified two of the three fugitive gunmen as Pakistani.

The attack at Pahalgam in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir was the deadliest for a quarter of a century and marked a dramatic shift with the targeting of civilians, rather than Indian security forces.

New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties and withdrew visas for Pakistanis on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a rare meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) with top military officials, including powerful Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, in the capital Islamabad in response to India’s accusations and measu
Modi led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed, all but one of whom was Indian.

“I say this unequivocally: whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi during a visit in Bihar state.

“Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.

A soldier was killed on Thursday in clashes with gunmen at Basantgarh in Kashmir, the Indian army said.

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