Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
INDIA AND PAKISTAN exchanged an escalating series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures after New Delhi blamed its arch-rival for backing a deadly shooting attack in the contested Kashmir region.
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”.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said in his first speech since the attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.
Pakistan has denied the accusations from India and a previously unknown militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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 last night.
Today has seen Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convene 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 measures.
“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a statement released by Sharif’s office said after the NSC meeting.
“In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to link the Pahalgam attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and defeat logic,” it said.
The slew of tit-for-tat measures announced by the Pakistan government include expelling Indian diplomats and cancelling visas for Indian nationals with the exception of Sikh pilgrims.
Islamabad said Indian military advisers were “persona non grata” and were “directed to leave Pakistan immediately”.
The main Wagah border crossing in Punjab will close on both sides.
Pakistan also warned that it would consider any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River an “act of war”.
Indian police say the three gunmen are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.
Police have offered a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest.
While the measures taken so far are largely symbolic, some fear New Delhi’s diplomatic moves may just be an opening salvo — with the potential risk of military action between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
In 2019, a suicide attack killed 41 Indian troops in Kashmir and triggered Indian air strikes inside Pakistan.
At the Attari-Wagah frontier, Pakistani citizens had already started to leave.
“We just want to go home,” said an exhausted-looking Mehnaz Begum, a Pakistani businessman from Karachi, as he left India.
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 today in clashes with gunmen at Basantgarh in Kashmir, the Indian army said.
Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar appeared calm today, with residents expressing shock at the attack, which has hit the region’s key tourist industry hard, and fear of what is to come.
“Everyone I have spoken to is heartbroken and shocked,” said Siddhi Wahid, a Kashmiri historian and political commentator.
Tuesday’s assault occurred as tourists enjoyed tranquil mountain views at the popular site at Pahalgam, when gunmen burst out of forests and raked crowds with automatic weapons.
Survivors told Indian media the gunmen targeted men and spared those who could give the Islamic declaration of faith.
In Pakistan, activists and members of religious parties staged an anti-India protest today.
The attack has enraged Hindu nationalist groups, and students from Kashmir at institutions across India have reported experiencing harassment and intimidation.
“It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity,” Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami said.
With reporting from – © AFP2025 and PA
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The Mosque incident in Dublin has managed for the most part to have stayed out of mainstream media.
There’s trouble brewing from within paradise.
@Maurice: If it was a Catholic organisation it would be given 160 legs. (€). They have magnified bad behaviour by 2% of sick evil men to damage 100% of Catholic clergy. They are scared to deal with Muslims.
@Maurice: I heard about it all on national broadcasting media. Seems mainstream to me. I wouldn’t view the internal issues of the Islamic Cultural Centre necessarily mainstream or broad-reaching anyway.
@Maurice: I hear Clonskeagh mosque has closed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. A designated terrorist organisation
@Pelagius Asturias: *close
@Pelagius Asturias: You heard correctly!
Why is Palestine now not covered people are still being slaughtered.
And burning down of churches in Ireland over the past week.
@Be Lucky: One article about two nuclear armed neighbours with a long history of deep animosity (possibly posturing for war), and you’re here whingeing about palestine and churches. One article. Ffs.
@Be Lucky: always the same field, always the same seed. Antisemitism and hatred. Not all of Ireland needs to plant the same seed.
@Be Lucky: To hell with the Palestinian and Israeli hate fest, They’re as bad as each other. Why don’t ye head on over there and do something about it.
Muslims, nothing but trouble
@Pete Hickey: Spent this week’s disability benefit on fags and cans already, have we? Get a life. And a job.
@Pete Hickey: Zoom out. People avoiding logic and reason. You know it well. Many here do.
@Pete Hickey: Bigots also.
@Jack Hayes: Durka Durka Muhammad Jihad
@Wendy Arbour aka Luas Vuitton – Dub Drag Queen: How much do drag queens earn? Are you coming to grips with the truth that you’re really a man not a woman! Common sense has prevailed.
@Wendy Arbour aka Luas Vuitton – Dub Drag Queen: Get to grips with the fact you’re a man not a woman (reality).
I wonder how many new Irish will be arguing with other over this
@Tom L: you don’t know any Irish people, do you?
@Wendy Arbour aka Luas Vuitton – Dub Drag Queen: No such thing anymore, they’re Wokies now and you are the spokesman eh
@Tom L: ‘Wokies’. LOL What a developmentally stunted human you are.
@Tom L: Rather be woke than be a fascist
@Wendy Arbour aka Luas Vuitton – Dub Drag Queen: do you practice being an arrogant dosser
Muslims a great bunch of lads
Two nuclear powers falling out with each other, what could possibly go wrong?
Vance and his missus will sort that out.
You know what. Keep your sordid little wars over there in Asia and eastern Europe and the middle east and don’t involve any of the rest of us peace loving people in them. I for one am sick of it all. War is hell.
@Eamon: the irony of a Leeds fan talking about peace
@You Cant Be Serious: You can’t be serious.
We’re “going of the rails on a crazy train”
Pakistan is a rogue nation that should never have been created.
@Hunt Ley: you can thank the Brits for that
Everyone get their KI tablets ready.
And brine curing your household pets.
Well im up for India..Pakkkkkis are dirt..
@Pol O Nuanain: We have both in Ireland. They are well used to poverty, mayhem and overpopulation. Something that will slowly but surely make its way into Irish society.
have your say