The US has potentially linked Pakistan to terrorism in India with Vice President JD Vance saying Washington hopes Pakistan would cooperate with India to hunt down and bring to justice terrorists “sometimes operating from its territory”
Vance’s remarks were made on the ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’ show on Thursday.
When asked to comment on the tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, Vance said Washington is in touch with both the countries.
“Our hope is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that does not lead to a broader regional conflict. And we hope that Pakistan to the extent that they are responsible cooperate with India to hunt down terrorists, sometimes operating in their territory. That is how we hope it unfolds. We are obviously in close contact with India and Pakistan,” Vance said a day after India conveyed to the US that it wanted the perpetrators, planners and backers brought to justice.
On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made this clear to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a call.
Later in the day, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh named Pakistan in the telephonic talks with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth and said Pakistan is a rogue state fuelling global terrorism and the world could no longer turn a blind eye to it.
This is the line India took at the UN earlier this week where it recorded the recent confession by Pakistan defence minister that Pakistan had financed terror networks.
The US had earlier urged both India and Pakistan to de-escalate.
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif’s YouTube channel blocked in India
Government’s move follows recommendations from the Ministry of Home Affairs in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s YouTube channel was blocked in India on Friday amid ongoing tension between the two countries following the deadly terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
“The content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order. For more details about government removal requests, please visit the Google Transparency Report,” read a message on the blocked channel.
The government had earlier this week blocked 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly disseminating “false, provocative and communally sensitive content” about India and has also strongly objected to the BBC’s reportage on the Pahalgam attack.
The government’s move follows recommendations from the Ministry of Home Affairs in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in the upper reaches of the Kashmir resort town in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Besides, the Ministry of External Affairs will be monitoring the reporting of the BBC, which termed terrorists as militants, officials had said.
The YouTube channels blocked are Dawn News, Irshad Bhatti, SAMAA TV, ARY NEWS, BOL NEWS, Raftar, The Pakistan Reference, Geo News, Samaa Sports, GNN, Uzair Cricket, Umar Cheema Exclusive, Asma Shirazi, Muneeb Farooq, SUNO News and Razi Naama
Pakistan closes air space over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
The closure of air space over a specified area allows a clearer radar picture as civilian flying is suspended and anything else has to be military plane, UAV, missile or a helicopter
In a panic reaction fearing an Indian air strike, Pakistan has closed its air space over major parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), including Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) about the closure of civil flying routes in PoK. This includes the part of PoK located west of the Kathua-Jammu-Rajouri-Pooch axis in Jammu and Kashmir.
The air space is also closed over Gilgit-Baltistan that is north of Ladakh. India already has its air assets located in Ladakh and that could be one of the fears at the Pakistan Army headquarters at Rawalpindi.
The closure of air space over specified areas allows a clearer radar picture as civilian flying is suspended and anything else has to be military plane, UAV, missile or a helicopter. It allows ground-based controllers to take an immediate action if anything shows up on the radar screens.
The closure of air space is an extension of Pakistan having announced a similar air space closure west of Karachi where an exercise is on. This will include missiles firing from land towards the sea. During the 1971 war, India had launched an attack from sea at Karachi harbour.
Separately India and Pakistan are now carrying out an intense tit-for-tat Naval exercises in the Arabian Sea – west of Gujarat.
Both countries have issued public notices called ‘Nav-area warning’ informing sea farers about the exercises and the need to stay away from these areas at sea.
Pakistan is conducting its exercises in its territorial waters and India is doing in its own. The notice of exercises at sea shows, the navies of two nuclear armed countries would be separated by just 150 km.
Pakistani troops resort to unprovoked firing at LoC for eighth consecutive day
The Army said on Friday that the Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked firing in five areas in Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said that during the night of May 1 and 2, the Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked small-arms firing from posts across the Line of Control in Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Naushera and Akhnoor areas.
“Indian troops responded in a calibrated and proportionate manner,” the Army said.
It marks the eighth day ight when the exchange of fire has taken place at Line of Control.
CRPF jawan may face action for marrying Pak woman sans nod
Submitted request, but wedding solemnised before approval
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is likely to initiate disciplinary proceedings against a constable of its 41st Battalion for marrying a Pakistani national without obtaining the mandatory departmental clearance. The act is viewed as a serious breach of protocol with potential national security implications.
According to official records, the constable had submitted a request to marry Minal Khan, a Pakistani citizen. However, the marriage was reportedly solemnised before the CRPF could issue a formal response or grant an NOC.
The matter has become more sensitive in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. As part of heightened security measures, India has suspended visa services for Pakistani nationals and directed all Pakistani citizens to exit before the expiry of their visas.
Sources indicate that the CRPF’s J&K Zone had recommended against granting the constable’s request, citing national security concerns. The matter was forwarded to the higher authorities for a policy-level decision.
An internal review has since flagged several procedural lapses, including the constable’s failure to inform the department that his spouse remained in India beyond the validity of her tourist visa. He claimed that a long-term visa application was filed, but didn’t formally notify the department of this development.
Following the government’s instructions to enforce the exit of Pakistani nationals, the constable’s spouse was transported to the Attari-Wagah border for deportation. However, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court granted a 10-day stay on her deportation on April 29.
Bangladesh distances itself from ex-army officer’s remarks of occupying India’s Northeast
Bangladesh has issued an official clarification following controversial remarks made by Major General (Retd) ALM Fazlur Rahman on social media, in which he suggested Bangladesh should consider occupying India’s northeastern states if New Delhi retaliates against Pakistan.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised that Rahman’s comments were made in a personal capacity and in no way reflect the views or policies of the government.
“The comments do not reflect the position or policies of the government of Bangladesh, and as such, the government neither endorses nor supports such rhetoric in any form or manner,” the statement read.
It further reaffirmed Bangladesh’s diplomatic stance, stating, “Bangladesh remains firmly committed to the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, mutual respect, and the peaceful coexistence of all nations.”
Rahman—former head of the Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh) and current chairperson of the National Independent Commission— had suggested that his country should invade and occupy all seven northeastern states of India if New Delhi attacks Pakistan in retaliation for the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 people.Advertisement
Rahman, considered close to Bangladesh’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus, also advocated for military cooperation with China in such a scenario.
“If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh will have to occupy seven states of northeast India. In this regard, I feel it is necessary to start discussions on joint military arrangement with China,” Rahman wrote in Bengali on Facebook.
Rahman’s remarks come at a time when India and Bangladesh are trying to improve strained bilateral relations. Tensions have heightened following former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s flight to India seeking asylum, along with India’s concerns over alleged targeted attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
The old playbook is usually a discredited way of doing business in fraught situations. However, there may also be some pathways that can be explored before all options are exhausted.
THE meadow massacre of innocents on April 22 at Pahalgam and the Pakistani responses to the dastardly terrorist attack are eerily reminiscent of the past. With 50 per cent of India’s population being younger than 25 years, young Indians may view the crisis as unprecedented. Statecraft, however, is as old as the ages. The tools states use tend to endure beyond the here and now. The options chosen are often pulled off the toolkit on the shelf. As Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, harking upon the two-nation theory in his speeches of April 16 and 26, has antecedents to ideologues since the nineteenth century. His reference to Jammu & Kashmir as the jugular vein of Pakistan is a refrain echoed since Jinnah articulated it in the 1940s.
The connection of the present strongman to the primal roots of the Pakistani state runs deep, despite the two-nation theory having long faltered with the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and Pakistan’s jugular vein remaining in Indian hands more than seven decades after Pakistan’s birth and Jinnah’s death.
As a relatively weaker power keen to alter the status quo, Pakistan’s perpetual quest has been to draw international attention to India-Pakistan tensions, especially during the visit of a foreign dignitary to India. The hope is to move beyond the bilateral paradigm. It was US Vice-President JD Vance’s first visit to India this time. Did it draw from the playbook of the Chittisinghpura massacre during President Clinton’s visit to India in March 2000?
Let’s take another example: the disdain with which terrorist attacks are insensitively portrayed in Pakistan as a ‘false flag’ action is a staple. The jailed PTI supremo Imran Khan posted on April 29 on X that the Pulwama terrorist attack, which resulted in the killing of 40 Indian security personnel, was a false flag action. Inside or outside prison, civilian or military leaders, the refrain is the same as it has always been — denial, deceit and deception.
Just like the Jaish-e-Mohammed first claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack and then recanted, The Resistance Front, too, denied a few days after claiming responsibility. Such tools have enduring value in the Pakistani tool kit.
The Pakistani Information Minister’s press conference past midnight on April 30 made media headlines in India. However, crying wolf past midnight in crises is not new for the Pakistani establishment. I recollect that in 1998, the then UN Secretary General’s staff officer had regaled me with anecdotes of how Pakistani officials had summoned numerous diplomats, including the UN representative, past midnight to tell them that they had credible information about India and Israel planning to launch an imminent attack on Pakistani nuclear assets. Attaullah Tarar, too, has drawn from the same playbook of the past.
It is obvious that, diplomatically, Pakistan is continuing with its old playbook — asking for a neutral inquiry, threatening to take the matter to the UN Security Council (which last discussed the India-Pakistan question formally in 1965), seeking mediation from states friendly to both India and Pakistan and calling on the international community to restrain the Indian response. For old-timers like me, there is a pervasive sense of deja vu.
It is possible that a Pakistani recounting of the past can well draw up a similar listing of Indian diplomatic responses not being very dissimilar from the current approach, give or take a few unique features — for example, holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.
Since the diplomatic space for India and Pakistan to engage openly through diplomatic envoys is more circumscribed than during similar crises in the past, is there anything in the playbook of the past that can be helpful? Perhaps, there may be something?
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was first sworn in in 2014, his bold move to invite all South Asian leaders took us by surprise while working in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. Several were sceptical of the initiative. Yet, it succeeded. There was a key ingredient to that success. Back-channel contacts beyond diplomatic front offices.
In India-Pakistan matters, back channels have, at times, proved effective. As a counsellor in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad in 1999, I was privy to the quiet way in which RK Mishra and Ambassador Vivek Katju passed on the tapes of the ‘Kargil’ conversations of Pakistani generals to the then Pakistani political leadership. The current Indian National Security Adviser, AK Doval, too, has engaged in back-channel efforts with Pakistan in the past. Also, the ceasefire understanding of February 2021 that has continued till now is said to have been arrived at with some prior informal to and fro. Is this a play worth emulating?
The old playbook is usually a discredited way of doing business in fraught situations. However, there may also be some narrow pathways that can be explored before all options are exhausted. Is there space for such a quiet, beyond-the-radar initiative between India and Pakistan? Or, has that time passed?
In statecraft, there is always more time for grand decision-making bargains than one has imagined. Whether it is before or after any other action that is being contemplated is a matter of detail.
Syed Akbaruddin is a retired diplomat who has served in the Pakistan High Commission and was India’s permanent representative at the UN.
Border skirmishes continue in different sectors along LoC for 9th day in J-K
Renewed ceasefire violations come despite a recent hotline conversation between the Directors General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan, during which the Indian side is learnt to have cautioned Pakistan
The post-to-post small arms firing between India and Pakistani troops continued in different sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir for the ninth consecutive night, officials said on Saturday.
However, there was no casualty in the border skirmishes initiated by Pakistan troops in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
This was the nine consecutive nights of unprovoked firing from across the border, which had mostly restricted to LoC. There was only one incident of firing along the International Border (IB).
Firing between the two sides comes amid heightened tensions following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
“During the night of May 2 and 3, Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked small arms fire across the Line of Control opposite the Kupwara, Uri, and Akhnoor areas of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
“Indian Army responded promptly and proportionately,” a defence spokesman said.
Civilians living along the LoC and IB have begun cleaning their community and individual bunkers to make them habitable in case of an escalation to shelling.
Since the night of April 24, just hours after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty following a terror attack in Pahalgam, Pakistani troops have been resorting to unprovoked firing at various places along the LoC in J&K, starting from the Kashmir Valley.
Initially beginning with unprovoked small arms firing at several posts along the LoC in Kupwara and Baramulla districts of north Kashmir, Pakistan swiftly expanded its ceasefire violations to the Poonch sector and subsequently to the Akhnoor sector of the Jammu region.
This was followed by small arms firing at several posts along the LoC in the Sunderbani and Naushera sectors of Rajouri district. Subsequently, the firing expanded to the Pargwal sector along the International Border in Jammu district.
The renewed ceasefire violations come despite a recent hotline conversation between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan, during which the Indian side is learnt to have cautioned Pakistan.
On April 24, Pakistan blocked its airspace for Indian airlines, closed the Wagah border crossing, suspended all trade with India, and warned that any attempt to divert water would be considered an “act of war.”
The ceasefire along the borders was reaffirmed in February 2021, when both countries agreed to observe the 2003 agreement in letter and spirit. However, the current situation marks a significant departure from the relative calm maintained since then.
India shares a total of 3,323 km of border with Pakistan, divided into three parts: the International Border (IB), approximately 2,400 km from Gujarat to the northern banks of the Chenab River in Akhnoor, Jammu; the Line of Control (LoC), 740 km long, running from parts of Jammu to parts of Leh; and the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), 110 km long, dividing the Siachen region from NJ 9842 to Indira Col in the north.
Punjab Congress MP Channi demands proof of surgical strikes, backtracks after BJP’s counter
The former Punjab CM said government had not taken any action even after 10 days of the Pahalgam terror attack; claimed that steps, such as annulling visas of Pakistanis and putting Indus Waters Treaty on hold, have no meaning
Moments after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge today said in the working committee meeting that the Opposition was firmly behind the government in the response against Pahalgam terror attack, former Punjab Chief Minister and CWC member Charanjit Singh Channi again demanded proof for the surgical strikes after the Pulwama attack.
Although Channi backtracked later, the BJP hit back with several MPs and leaders questioning the Congress for continuing to “cast aspersions on the armed forces.”
At a post CWC meeting press conference, Channi said the government had not taken any action even after 10 days of the Pahalgam terror attack and claimed that steps, such as annulling visas of Pakistanis and putting the Indus Waters Treaty on hold, have no meaning.
BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan slammed the Congress, saying Channi had, in 2024, disgustingly commented “stuntbaazi” when Corporal Vicky Pahade was killed in the Poonch attack. “And now, he is insulting the armed forces again, saying no surgical strike on Pakistan happened,” Kesavan said.
Channi to a question in the press conference said: “Ten days have gone by but no action has been taken by the government. We demand that the government take steps and the entire country is awaiting to witness what action it takes against Pakistan. People are waiting for the 56-inch chest as to when will it act. We demand that the government act fast and give results”
He referred to the killing of CRPF personnel in Pulwama in 2019 and said, “The government even then boasted of action but we have never seen where in Pakistan the strikes were done and where people were killed. If someone hurled a bomb in the country, won’t people know? They claim to have conducted surgical strikes against Pakistan but nothing had happened. Surgical strikes were not seen anywhere and no one knew about them”
Again asked if he was demanding proof for those strikes, Channi said, “I have always been demanding that.”
After the BJP attacked Channi, he backtracked and said no proof was needed for the surgical strikes.
He clarified, “I have said earlier also that the Congress party, in this hour of grief, is standing by the government. If the government disrupts their (Pakistan’s) water supply, air or whatever action it takes, we are standing like a rock with it. We do not ask for proof and no evidence has been sought for it (surgical strikes). The question today is that we want justice for the families of the victims and the country. We are standing with the government,” he said.
