Pakistan accused India on Wednesday of planning an imminent military strike based on what it called "credible intelligence," as Pakistani nationals began leaving India in response to New Delhi’s expulsion orders following last week’s deadly attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
An attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir and India’s moves to punish Pakistan, which denies any connection to the massacre, have driven tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to their highest point since 2019, when the two sides came close to war after a suicide car bombing in Kashmir.
Early Wednesday, Pakistan said it had "credible intelligence” that India intends to carry out military action against it in the "next 24-36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident."
There was no immediate comment from Indian officials. Indian government officials said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "given complete operational freedom to the armed forces to decide on the mode, targets and timing of India’s response to the Pahalgam massacre," speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in separate phone calls with India and Pakistan, stressed the need to "avoid a confrontation that could result in tragic consequences."
The U.S. State Department also called for de-escalation and said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be speaking soon to the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers.
The deadline for Pakistani citizens to leave India, with exceptions for those who are on medical visas, passed Sunday but many families were still scrambling to the border crossing in Attari town in northern Punjab state to cross into Pakistan.
Some were arriving on their own and others were being deported by police.
"We have settled our families here. We request the government not to uproot our families," said Sara Khan, a Pakistani national who was ordered back to Pakistan without her husband, Aurangzeb Khan, who holds an Indian passport.
Waiting on the Indian side of the border crossing, Khan carried her 14-day-old child in her arms. She said Indian authorities did not give her any time to recuperate from a caesarean section and that her long-term visa was valid until July 2026.
"They (authorities) told me you are illegal and you should go," said Khan, who has been living in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 2017. "They gave us no time. I could not even change my shoes."
Tensions between rivals India and Pakistan have escalated after gunmen killed 26 people, most of them Indian tourists, near the resort town of Pahalgam in disputed Kashmir.
The massacre set off tit-for-tat diplomatic measures between India and Pakistan that included the cancellation of visas and a recall of diplomats.
New Delhi also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad and ordered its border shut with Pakistan. In response, Pakistan has closed its airspace to Indian airlines.
Cross-border exchanges of gunfire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers have also increased along the Line of Control, the de facto frontier that separates Kashmiri territory between the two rivals.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the massacre. Pakistan has denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown armed group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.
At least three tourists who survived the massacre told The Associated Press that the gunmen singled out Hindu men and shot them from close range. The dead included a Nepalese citizen and a local Muslim pony ride operator.
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. New Delhi describes all militancy in Indian-controlled Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism.
Pakistan denies this, and many Muslim Kashmiris consider the resistance fighters to be part of a home-grown freedom struggle.
Meanwhile, India’s cabinet committee on security, headed by Modi, met Wednesday. It was their second such meeting since the attack.
