Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire in disputed Kashmir for a third night in a row, officials said Sunday, as relations between the nuclear-armed rivals plunged to their lowest level in years.
The Indian army said there had been “unprovoked” firing of small arms “initiated by Pakistan” along the Line of Control (LOC) that separates the two countries.
“(Our) own troops responded effectively with appropriate small arms fire,” it added.
Islamabad has denied any involvement, calling attempts to link Pakistan to the attack “frivolous” and vowing to respond to any Indian action. Moreover, it has not yet confirmed the latest exchange of fire.
Additionally, Chief Minister of the northeastern Indian state of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma vowed that India will take “decisive revenge”, adding that the waters of the Indus will “remain” theirs.
His statements came in response to a comment by the Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari following India’s suspension of the Indus Water Treaty.
“Indus River is ours and will remain ours; either our water will flow from this Indus or your blood”, Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, was quoted as saying by the India-based ANI news agency.
Pakistan, for its part, has announced it will suspend participation in bilateral treaties, including one related to the ‘Line of Control’—the frontier separating the two countries in disputed areas where a ceasefire had been in place for years.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump did not answer when asked if he would contact the leaders of both countries but said he is “close” to India and Pakistan and he knows both leaders.
“They have had that fight for a thousand years in Kashmir,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “There’s been tensions on that border for 1,500 years. They’ll get it figured out one way or the other.”
The initial response from Washington has been similar to how the first Trump administration dealt with the last major flare-up over Kashmir in 2019, according to The New York Times, citing Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Even if the United States or other powers did try to insert themselves into the conflict, they may have limited influence, the newspaper said.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. Both claim the territory in full but govern separate portions of it.
