China exhorted India and Pakistan on Monday to “exercise a restraint” while the two countries would have exchanged fire at the control line (LOC) for a fourth consecutive night following a deadly attack in the pahalgam of the occupied cashmere.
The attack on April 22 killed 26 people, mainly tourists, and was one of the deadliest armed attacks in the contested region of the Himalayas since 2000. The cashmere resistance, also known as the resistance front, said that it had “unequivocally” its participation in the attack, after an initial message that claimed responsibility.
India, without providing evidence, involved cross -border ties of the attackers, while Pakistan has strongly denied any involvement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for a neutral investigation into the incident.
“China hopes that the two parties will exercise a restraint, will meet halfway, will properly manage the relevant differences by dialogue and consultation and jointly maintain regional peace and stability,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiakun.
“China is hosting all measures that will help cool the situation,” Jiakun told a regular press briefing.
The declaration made after Pakistan and India exchanged gunshots against a fourth consecutive night across the loc, after four years of relative calm.
“During the night of April 27 to 28 … The Pakistani army posts launched unlikely light weapons fire through the control line,” the Indian army said in a statement.
There was no reported victim and Islamabad did not immediately confirm the shots.
The defense forces of India have conducted several military exercises across the country since the attack. Some of them are routine preparation exercises, Reuters has cited a defense official.
Since the incident, nuclear nations have sparked a series of measures against each other.
India on April 23 unilaterally suspended the Critique Water Treaty of the Indus (IWT) – a water sharing agreement which was negotiated by the World Bank and endured by wars and decades of hostility.
The next day, Pakistan retaliated by threatening to put the Simla agreement in suspense and closing its airspace for Indian flights. The Islamabad National Security Committee (NSC) also called India to “refrain from its reflexive blame game and exploitation managed by Cynique, managed by incidents like Pahalgam to advance its narrow political program”.
On Thursday, the Indian Prime Minister Hindu Narendra amended, promised to prosecute the attackers at the “ends of the earth” and said that those who had planned and led the attack “will be punished beyond their imagination”.
Calls are also from Indian politicians and others for military action against Pakistan.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Friday that Pakistan was “ready to cooperate” in an international Pahalgam attack, but also warned of a “total war” if India led an attack on Pakistan.
The United Nations exhorted the rivals of the arc to show a “maximum restraint” so that the problems can be “peacefully solved thanks to a significant mutual commitment”.
The United States in contact with India and Pakistan, urge to work towards a “responsible solution”
The Call for China’s detention added to the United States Declaration on Sunday, urging India and Pakistan to work towards what it called a “responsible solution” because Washington said it was in contact with the two countries.
“This is an evolving situation and we closely monitor the developments. We have been in contact with the governments of India and Pakistan on several levels,” a spokesman for the US State Department told Reuters in a statement sent by email.
“The United States encourages all parties to work together towards responsible resolution,” added the spokesperson.
The spokesperson for the State Department also said that Washington “is held with India and firmly condemns the terrorist attack on Pahalgam”, reiterating comments similar to those recent by US President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance.
In public, the United States government expressed its support for India after the attack, but did not criticize Pakistan. While Saudi Arabia and Iran proposed to Medier, Trump said last week that he was convinced that India and Pakistan would make him understand “.
India is an increasingly important American partner, because Washington aims to counter the growing influence of China in Asia while Pakistan remains an American ally, even if its importance for Washington decreased after the 2021 American withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Michael Kugelman, an analyst and writer based in Washington in South Asia for Foreign Policy magazine, said India is now a much closer American partner than Pakistan.
“This can fear in Islamabad that if India retaliates militarily, the United States can sympathize with its imperatives to fight terrorism and not try to obstruct,” Kugelman told Reuters.
Kugelman also said that taking into account Washington’s involvement and current diplomatic efforts in the Russian War in Ukraine and the military offensive of Israel in Gaza, the Trump administration “deals with a lot of its global plate” and can leave India and Pakistan alone, at least at the start of tensions.
Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistan ambassador to the United States and a principal researcher at the Think Tank of the Hudson Institute, also said that there was no American appetite to calm the situation right now.
“India has a long -standing grievance on terrorism emanating or supported from everywhere [the] border. Pakistan has a longtime conviction that India wants to dismember it. The two work in a frenzy every few years. This time, there is no American interest in calming things, “said Haqqani.
Ned Price, a former head of the US State Department under the administration of former President Joe Biden, said that if the Trump administration gave this question the sensitivity it deserved, a perception that he would support India at any cost could increase tensions more.
“The Trump administration has clearly indicated that it wanted to deepen the American-Indian partnership, a commendable objective, but that it is ready to do it at almost all costs.
“If India believes that the Trump administration will support it in the handle whatever happens, we could be in reserve for more climbing and more violence between these nuclear neighbors,” added Price.
2,000 detainees while Indian forces continue repression
Meanwhile, the Indian soldiers have exploded nine houses from Cashmiris Pro-Liberté and have detained nearly 2,000 people since the attack by Pahalgam, arousing the anger of the public and the accusations of “collective punishment”.
Police have launched a large manhunt and held a long list of interrogation suspects, including nearly 2,000 residents across the territory, a senior police official told AFP.
“It is a rotating door in the police positions as part of the current investigation,” said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
“Some have already been released, and others are summoned to the police stations,” added the officer. “These are not arrests, just to search for information that could lead to terrorists,” insisted the manager.
The security forces have searched nearly 1,000 houses and forests hunting for cashmere attackers who said a local police officer on Monday.
State political leaders called for caution to ensure that the innocent people are not injured in government’s actions against terrorism.
“It is time to … avoid any poorly placed action that alienates people. Punish the culprits, do not show them any mercy but do not let innocent people become collateral damage,” said Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of the territory on Saturday.
Another former chief minister appealed to the Indian government “to take care that the innocent people do not feel to feel the biggest because the alienation helps the objectives of the terrorists of the division and the fear”.
Aga Ruhullah, a federal occupied cashmere legislator, said: “Cashmere and Cashmiris receive collective punishment”.
