India and Pakistan trade gunfire across Kashmir border after deadly attack

Indian and Pakistani troops have exchanged gunfire across the volatile frontier in Kashmir for a second day, amid growing tensions after a brazen attack that killed 26 people at a popular tourist resort. The massacre has sent relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours into a dangerous downward spin. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between them but claimed fully by both. India’s military said Pakistani soldiers opened fire from “multiple posts” along the heavily militarised ceasefire line, and Indian forces “responded appropriately” to what it called “unprovoked” firing. No casualties were reported. Pakistan did not immediately comment. The clashes followed the attack last Tuesday, when gunmen opened fire in a meadow near Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. The attackers reportedly asked the victims, all male, whether they were Hindu or Muslim and shot the Hindus. Violence had been steadily abating in Kashmir, and the attack struck a heavy blow to the region’s recovering tourism industry. An obscure group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance claimed responsibility. India links the group to the outlawed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, but Pakistan denies involvement. In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, offered to cooperate with a “neutral investigation”. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has vowed to “track and punish every terrorist and their backers” and pursue the killers “to the ends of the earth”. “Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation,” Sharif said, while warning Pakistan’s forces stood ready to repel “any misadventure” by India. In tit-for-tat moves, India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, a critical water-sharing pact, expelled Pakistani diplomats and cancelled Pakistani visas. Islamabad retaliated by expelling Indian diplomats, cancelling Indians’ visas and closing its airspace. It also suspended the 1972 Shimla accord, a key framework for dialogue. India’s resources minister, C R Patil, said the country would move to ensure “not a single drop” of river water flowed into Pakistan after the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Pakistan has warned any attempt to block water would be an “act of war”, with the Pakistan People’s party chief, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, declaring: “Either our water will flow through it, or their blood.” Experts say disrupting the flow would require big investment and years of work. “India lacks the hydro infrastructure needed to actually impede the flow of water to Pakistan in the short term,” Brahma Chellaney, an analyst, said. “So the action is largely symbolic.”