Pakistan’s defense minister on Monday said he believes an incursion by India is ‘imminent’ as tensions remain heightened following a militant attack in India’s Kashmir region last week, which saw the killing of 26 people, first reported Reuters.
India, which has not named any group it suspects of leading the attack but said it believes Pakistan to have backed the militants involved in the assault, has reportedly engaged in an aggressive hunt to find those involved in the deadliest attack in two decades.
According to a BBC report, Indian authorities have used explosives to demolish properties allegedly linked to the suspects, more than 1,500 people have been detained for questioning and troops from both India and Pakistan have exchanged cross-border small arms fire.
‘We have reinforced our forces because it is something which is imminent now. So in that situation, some strategic decisions have to be taken, so those decisions have been taken,’ Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters on Monday from the capital city of Islamabad.
Asif did not say why he thought a possible incursion from India was imminent, but noted that allies in the Gulf had been informed, who in turn had apparently communicated the situation on the ground with officials in China and the U.S.
The New York Times on Monday similarly reported that India appeared to be building its case for possible military intervention as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been engaging in mass diplomatic outreach by speaking with more than a dozen world leaders about the situation.
The feud between India and Pakistan predates last week’s attack by nearly 80 years, following Britain’s decision to end its direct rule in the region following World War II and enact the 1947 Partition of British India, which essentially divided modern-day India and Pakistan based on Hindu and Muslim populations — though it caused massive unrest and displacement along religious lines.
The partition also gave the diverse Jammu and Kashmir region the ability to choose if it wanted to join either newly established nation.
Ultimately, the conflict ongoing today stems from the previous monarch of the region’s initial attempt to seek independence, followed by its decision to join India in exchange for security against invading Pakistani militias.
India and Pakistan have engaged in several wars and cross-border skirmishes in the decades since.
While President Donald Trump said last week that resolving the decades-old conflict was down to New Delhi and Islamabad to sort out, the State Department said it was working with both sides to encourage a ‘responsible solution.’