US calls on India and Pakistan to ‘de-escalate’
Pakistan urged to cooperate in probe and Delhi encouraged to work with Islamabad
Washington: The United States has appealed to India and Pakistan to de-escalate after a deadly attack in Kashmir, as New Delhi on Thursday said that both sides again traded border gunfire overnight.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his military “complete operational freedom” after the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people on April 22.
Islamabad says it has “credible evidence” that India is now planning an imminent military strike, vowing that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio late Wednesday separately called India’s top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the State Department said.
Rubio “urged Pakistani officials’ cooperation in investigating this unconscionable attack” and “encouraged India to work with Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia”, said spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
India’s foreign minister said Thursday after the call that the attack’s “perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice”.
On Thursday, New Delhi reported the seventh straight night of small arms gunfire between the two sides at the heavily militarised Line of Control, the de facto border.
Since the attack - the deadliest in Kashmir on civilians in years - India and Pakistan have exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic barbs and expulsions and shut border crossings.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men suspected of involvement who they say belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
They have announced a two-million-rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest and carried out sweeping detentions seeking anyone suspected of links to the attackers.
New Delhi on Wednesday closed its airspace to Pakistani planes, after Islamabad banned Indian planes from overflying.
The worst attack in recent years in Kashmir was at Pulwama in 2019, when a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.
Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.
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