NEW DELHI: India’s foreign minister said he has told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that perpetrators of the deadly attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) last week should be brought to justice, as the US sought to calm tensions between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India.
The US said Rubio discussed the strained ties between the two neighbours in separate telephone calls on Wednesday, urging them to work with each other to “de-escalate tensions.”
He expressed support to India in combating extremism and urged Pakistan to cooperate in probing the attack that killed 26 people, the State Department said.
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Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a post on X that he told Rubio “perpetrators, backers and planners” of the April 22 attack “must be brought to justice”.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged the US to press India to “dial down the rhetoric and act responsibly,” according to a statement from his office.
Assailants attacked a meadow teeming with tourists in IIOJK’s Pahalgam area last week, segregated men, asked their names and shot Hindus at close range, officials and survivors said. At least 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, although each controls only a part of the Himalayan region. They have fought two wars over Kashmir, and New Delhi accuses Pakistan of supporting and funding an anti-government uprising in IIOJK that started in 1989 but has now waned.
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Pakistan says it only offers diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri demand for self-determination.
The old rivals have taken measures against each other since the Pahalgam attack, with India putting a critical river water sharing treaty in abeyance. Both have closed their airspace to each other’s airlines.
Troops from the two sides have exchanged small arms fire across their frontier for the past seven nights, but no casualties have been reported so far, India has said.
Pakistan did not respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations has asked both countries to avoid confrontation. China, a key player in the region, had earlier this week urged them to exercise restraint.
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The head of the Azad Kashmir called for international mediation and said his administration was preparing a humanitarian response in case of further escalation.
India’s navy issued warnings for several firing drills in the Arabian Sea off the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat states. Gujarat shares a border with Pakistan.
The navy did not respond to a request for comment on the warnings.
Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his military chiefs that they have the freedom to decide the country’s response to the Pahalgam attack, a government source said. Pakistan says military action by India was imminent.
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