London – Tension is rising between India and Pakistan after top Pakistani official Attaullah Tarar said in a televised statement on Wednesday that Pakistan had “credible intelligence” that India was planning to take military action against Pakistan in the “next 24 to 36 hours”.
The speculation comes after the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led security meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The meeting follows the 22 April 2025 attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people.
Although the Resistance Front claimed responsibility, tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan remain high in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack.
The Resistance Front is a banned militant outfit believed to be a proxy of Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed’s Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India automatically announced the closure of the border with Pakistan and restricted a special visa programme, among other decisions such as exiting the Indus Water Treaty.
The treaty manages the sharing of water from the enormous Indus River system, a critical resource supporting millions of livelihoods across Pakistan and northern India.
It is still not yet clear what course of action India could take, but in the past India has launched multiple covert raids which are usually not announced.
India has also performed surgical strikes before; these strikes would be directed at specific targets as they did in 2016.
In addition, with the Pahalgam attack, there could be an attempt to take back that territory; however, with the closely matched military capabilities of both sides, this seems unlikely.
What is more, the Indian Navy announced that it had carried out test missile strikes.
“Indian Navy ships undertook successful multiple anti-ship firings to revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems and crew for long-range precision offensive strike,” the navy said in a statement on 27 April 2025.
Bearing in mind, a full-blown military war has only happened four times in 78 years, and three of those times have been over Kashmir.
The diplomatic world is getting involved, as the United States Department’s Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday: “We are reaching out to both parties and telling them to not escalate the situation.”
So far, both neighbours continue to exchange gunfire along the Line of Control that divides India and Pakistan.
Amid public outrage over the attacks, reports quoted Indian Prime Minister Modi as vowing to “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”.
The Pakistani government has denied any links to the attacks.
