The statement by Attaullah Tarar came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a closed-door meeting the previous day with army and security chiefs, at which he gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack, a senior government source said.
“Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext,” Tarar said.
Pahalgam is a tourist hub in Indian-administered Kashmir where 26 men were killed on April 22, the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested region in years.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting the attack, a claim Islamabad has rejected.
“Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response,” said Tarar. “India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region!”
The development comes as nations around the world, from neighbouring China to the United States, express deep concerns and urge restraint by the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India’s army said on Wednesday it had repeatedly traded gunfire with Pakistani troops for a sixth night in a row across the Line of Control, the de facto Kashmir border, a heavily fortified zone of high-altitude Himalayan outposts.
The army reported “small arms firing” in multiple sites, but with no reported casualties.
Pakistan’s military did not confirm the shooting, but state radio in Islamabad reported on Tuesday it had shot down an Indian drone, calling it a violation of its airspace.
It did not say when the incident happened, and there was no comment from New Delhi.
The US State Department said top diplomat Marco Rubio would call his Pakistani and Indian counterparts soon to urge them “to not escalate the situation”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile held calls on Tuesday with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in which he “offered his good offices to support de-escalation”, his spokesman said.
Sharif’s office later said he had urged Guterres to “counsel India” to exercise restraint, while pledging to defend Pakistan’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity with full force in case of any misadventure by India”. (AFP)
