On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared Pakistan receptive to any “neutral and transparent” probe into the Pahalgam incident in India-occupied Kashmir this week.
In what is said to be the worst armed attack in the disputed Himalayan area since 2000, the April 22 attack in Pahalgam claimed 26 lives, largely of tourists. Said to be responsible for the attack was the heretofore unidentified The Resistance Front (TRF).
With India unilaterally suspending the crucial Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and Pakistan retaliating by threatening to put the Simla Agreement in abeyance and closing its airspace for Indian flights, the nuclear-armed countries have unleashed a raft of measures against each other since the incident.
While Pakistan vehemently denied any participation, India has inferred cross-border links of the terrorists.
Speaking during a passing-out procession at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, PM Shehbaz said: “The latest tragedy in Pahalgam is simply another example of this constant blame game, which must come to a grinding stop. Maintaining its position as a responsible nation, Pakistan is willing to take part in any unbiased, honest inquiry.
The premier attacked India for carrying on with a “pattern of exploitation, levelling baseless allegations and false accusations without credible investigation or verifiable evidence”.
The prime minister confirmed: “Our brave armed forces remain fully capable and ready to defend the sovereignty of the country.”
“I also want to stress the significance of Kashmir as, as the Founder of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah correctly pointed out, it is the jugular vein of Pakistan. Sadly, after several UN resolutions, this internationally acknowledged conflict still unresolved.
“Let there be no doubt, Pakistan will keep supporting the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people till they achieve their rights by their great struggle and sacrifices.”
The prime minister said, “On the other hand, Pakistan has always denounced terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
“As the front-line state against terrorism, we have suffered great loss—out 90,000 casualties and economic losses beyond imagination—exceeding $600 billion,” he said.
The comment of PM Shehbaz comes one day after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif informed the New York Times in an interview that Pakistan was “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors”.
According to the minister, India suspended the IWT under cover of the aftermath of the militant attack for internal political reasons. India was punishing Pakistan “without any proof, without any investigation,” he remarked.
Asif told the magazine, “We do not want this war to flare up since flaring up of this war can cause disaster for this region.”
Asif refuted India’s claims by claiming that the banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was “defunct” and incapable of organizing strikes from Pakistan.
“They have no setup in Pakistan,” he told the NYT.
Those folks, whatever remains of them, are contained. A few of them are in detention while others are house arrested. The minister remarked, “They are hardly at all active.”
NYT claims Asif claimed the incident could have been a “false flag” operation run by the Indian government meant to cause a crisis.
According to the defence minister, India has been seeking to break free from the pact for the past ten years, therefore upsetting the stability in the area.
They were coming up with justifications. He was said to have been saying: they were generating problems not there. “They have now discovered an excuse to break out from this arrangement.”
Asif had cautioned in a different Sky News interview of a “all-out war” should India invade Pakistan.
Asif remarked, “If there is an all-out attack or something like that, then clearly there would be an all-out war,” adding that the possibility of a full-scale military battle in the area should cause international “worriedness.”
Fire swapping for the second day at LoC
As tensions sank following the Pahalgam attack, there were accounts of Indian and Pakistani troops trading gunfire for a second straight day on Saturday across the Line of Control (LoC).
Government official Syed Ashfaq Gilani of Azad Kashmir said AFP yesterday that troops engaged in firefighting along the border separating the two republics. “No firing on the civilian population,” he said.
The Pakistani military made no quick comments. The army of India verified that there had been limited small arm shooting.
Reuters reports that the Indian army today claimed its troops replied to “unprovoked” small weapons fire from several Pakistan Army posts starting before midnight on Friday along the 740-kilometer LoC.
From the Indian side, there were no recorded casualties, it claimed.
Among the bold actions India declared on April 23 against Pakistan was the unilateral decision to terminate the 1960 IWT, mediated by the World Bank that has survived decades of antagonism and conflict.
India likewise closed its borders and reduced diplomatic relations over what its media and government said — without providing any proof — Islamabad’s supposed assistance for cross-border terrorism.
The National Security Committee (NSC) in Islamabad declared Pakistan’s response the next day: all trade, bilateral pacts, and flights off-limits for its eastern neighbor. It further exhorted India to “refrain from its reflexive blame game and cynical, staged managed exploitation of events like Pahalgam to further its narrow political agenda.”
Rising tensions between the nuclear powers, voices from all around—including the United Nations—called on both nations to show moderation. United States President Donald Trump said he was sure India and Pakistan will “get it figured out,” even while Saudi Arabia and Iran volunteered to mediate.
Trump remarked interestingly: “There have been tensions on that border for 1,500 years so, you know, it’s the same as it has been.” Trump and other US officials have promised India “full support” in tracking down the offenders of the horrific occurrence since the attack.
