After lethal Kashmir assault, India experiences change of fireplace with Pakistani troopers

MUMBAI, India — A day after the United Nations appealed for “maximum restraint” between Pakistan and India, the Indian navy reported an change of fireplace with Pakistani troopers on Friday throughout the de-facto border of the disputed area of Kashmir.

Tensions between the 2 nuclear-armed neighbors have soared after India blamed Pakistan for a militant assault in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday that killed 26 males. Pakistan has denied involvement within the assault, one of many deadliest on Indian civilians in years.

In a briefing Thursday, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-Common António Guterres, advised reporters that the U.N. was interesting to each international locations “to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further.”

Friday’s transient change of gunfire appeared to finish with out casualties, in line with the Indian navy and media. Pakistan’s international ministry spokesperson declined to touch upon the firing at a press briefing in Islamabad, saying he would defer to the Pakistani navy for formal affirmation.

Some Indian analysts warned of the potential of extra severe navy motion within the coming days. “One thing we can say with pretty much absolute certainty is that there will be a military response,” stated Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, an internet every day.

The victims of Tuesday’s assault, principally Hindu vacationers, have been ambushed in a distant alpine meadow. Eyewitnesses advised Indian information organizations that among the gunmen demanded to know whether or not their victims have been Muslims earlier than taking pictures them. The assault was claimed by a little-known group calling itself Kashmir Resistance, which India claims is a proxy for a bunch that’s backed by the Pakistani navy.

Each Pakistan and India management elements of Muslim-majority Kashmir, and each international locations declare it in its entirety. They’ve gone to warfare over Kashmir a number of instances.

Varadarjan pointed to earlier incidents of hostility between the 2 international locations as a information of what might occur now, however believes any escalation could also be tougher to defuse than beforehand. “The global terrain is different,” he says. “You have a White House that may be less inclined to interfere and intervene than it did five years ago.”

State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to reply a query from a journalist this week on whether or not the U.S. would possibly attempt to mediate on Kashmir, as President Trump supplied to do throughout his first time period within the White Home. “As we all know, it’s a rapidly changing situation and we are monitoring it closely, as you might imagine,” Bruce stated. President Trump has condemned Tuesday’s assault.

Indian media famous the assault got here days after Pakistan’s military chief Gen. Asim Munir described Kashmir as his nation’s “jugular vein,” and occurred whereas Vice President JD Vance and his household have been visiting India.

Following the assault, India introduced the suspension of a decades-old water treaty with Pakistan. It shuttered a serious border crossing and ordered the expulsion of navy advisers from the Pakistani diplomatic mission in New Delhi.

Pakistan introduced comparable countermeasures, and ordered a halt to commerce with India and closed its airspace to Indian plane. It additionally warned that any transfer by India to carry again water could be thought of an “act of war,” in line with a press release from the workplace of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Rajesh Rajagopalan, a professor of worldwide politics on the Jawaharlal Nehru College in New Delhi, famous that it will be troublesome for India to maintain a wider battle, just because it doesn’t have sufficient air energy to take action. “There doesn’t seem to be any kind of plans for, any kind of capacity for any kind of sustained military operation,” he stated. “Even if there is some kind of military operation, it is going to be fairly quick. Of course, the problem is that then Pakistan will respond — and then how that goes, it’s difficult to say.”

Water specialists stated Pakistan’s fears about water loss on account of suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty have been overblown due to the realm’s geography, which incorporates among the world’s highest mountains. “There is no known technology through which you can stop a river the size of the Indus, or the Jhelum, or the Chenab,” stated Daanish Mustafa, professor in vital geography at King’s Faculty London, referring to the rivers whose waters Pakistan is entitled to underneath the treaty.

“Let’s pretend the Indians have gone completely bonkers, right? They pull out $100 billion out of their pocket and start building dams like absolute crazy people. What are they going to do with the dam?” Mustafa says. “If it’s a hydroelectric dam, they have to release the water in order to generate electricity.” And a dam to retailer water, he says, would “submerge the entire Kashmir Valley. That’s the end of the Kashmir issue.”

NPR producer Omkar Khandekar contributed to this report from Mumbai.