A war between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan seemed increasingly likely in the early hours of Wednesday, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly giving his military the freedom to act against its neighbor.
According to Reuters, one Pakistani minister said that India intended on “carry[ing] out military action” on Pakistan in the “next 24-36 hours.”
The tensions stem from an April 22 terrorist attack in the Pahalgam area of Jammu and Kashmir — a disputed region currently controlled by India but claimed by both countries.
As Reuters noted, India has identified at least three attackers, two of whom they said were Pakistani nationals. The men took a tourist group hostage, separated them by name, and shot and killed those whose names were Hindu.
Twenty-six people were killed.
The government has also placed the blame on Pakistan itself for the attack.
Out of Islamabad, meanwhile, Pakistani officials said they had “credible intelligence” that India was planning an imminent military attack “on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident.” It has called for an independent third-party probe to determine who or what was responsible for the attack and said it would act “assuredly and decisively” if India were to initiate military action.
The Times of India, meanwhile, reported that Prime Minister Modi had given the Indian military “complete freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing of response” to the attacks during a meeting on Tuesday, which gathered the heads of security forces that would be responsible for an action in Jammu and Kashmir, were one to take place.
Will India and Pakistan go to war?
“It is our national resolve to deal a crushing blow to terrorism,” Modi said.
Modi was reiterating a line he had taken since the attack, in which he promised to “pursue [those responsible] to the ends of the earth.”
“India will identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers,” he said in a statement on X.
“India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism.”
India will identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers.
We will pursue them to the ends of the earth.
India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. pic.twitter.com/sV3zk8gM94
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 24, 2025
The most recent military conflict between India and Pakistan also occurred under similar circumstances in 2019. Then, a suicide bomber alleged to be with Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has links to al-Qaida, killed 40 Indian military personnel in Kashmir.
While Pakistan bans the group, it was allowed to operate relatively openly there.
India responded by conducting airstrikes inside Pakistani airspace, with retaliatory attacks coming from Pakistan the following day.
That conflict didn’t escalate into a full-scale war — but, if a major war is to break out between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, the Jammu and Kashmir region is likely to be the flashpoint. President Donald Trump’s administration made clear over the weekend it was monitoring the situation carefully and warned parties against retaliation.
“We are reaching out to both parties, and telling, of course, them to not escalate the situation,” a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, relayed via a State Department representative to Reuters, read.
It added that Rubio expected to speak to the foreign ministers of both countries on Tuesday or Wednesday.
While the attack was condemned by both President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, both avoided blaming Pakistan directly for the violence.
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